A commemorative plaque dedicated to the victims of the Tu-154M plane crash near Smolensk was unveiled in Lublin. The ceremony was preceded by the Holy Mass presided over by the Lublin metropolitan Archbishop Stanisław Budzik. The ceremony was attended by the Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Marek Kuchciński.

The plaque says that on April 10, 2010, 96 prominent representatives of the Polish nation died in a plane crash near Smolensk, including President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria and President-in-Exile Ryszard Kaczorowski.

- We will remember the day of 10 April 2010 till the end of our lives. We will always remember the time, the place and the circumstances when we received the incredible news about the crash of the presidential airplane. So improbable that we did not want to believe it', Archbishop Budzik said in his homily. - In the days of our mourning two years ago the world press wrote that Poland was desperately seeking the meaning of its national tragedy. We were looking for this sense in the Eucharist and we are still looking for it by celebrating the memorial of Christ's death and resurrection', added the Archbishop of Lublin.

The ceremony was attended by family members of those who died in the crash, members of parliament, representatives of provincial and municipal authorities and residents of Lublin. All gathered people sang the national anthem and observed a minute of silence in memory of the victims. The Vice-Marshal of the Sejm Marek Kuchciński (PiS) called the gathered people to take care of passing on to the youth "the memory of great events and great members of our nation".

- It is up to us to prepare the next generations, and historical memory is one of the basic values that should serve us and the next generations," - Kuchciński said.

- Together with the President of the Republic of Poland, the late Lech Kaczynski, the main representatives of public and state institutions who built and cared for our historical memory died.

This awareness should strengthen us in the belief that we are going the right way", Kuchciński added. The stone plaque was funded by a social committee chaired by the head of the Lublin branch of the Law and Justice Law and Justice MP Krzysztof Michałkiewicz. The plaque was made by Kazimierz Stasz, a sculptor from Lublin.

It was embedded in the wall of the Capuchin monastery in the center of the city, at Krakowskie Przedmieście. At the end of the ceremony wreaths were laid and candles were lit under the plaque.

The ceremony was held on September 16 this year.

me, PAP