Bishop dies on way home from Polish plane crash commemorations

Warsaw, Poland - Polish Lutheran bishop Mieczyslaw Cieslar, 60, died in a car accident on his way home from commemorations for President Lech Kaczynski and other victims of a plane crash in Russia, the Lutheran Church in Poland said Monday.

Cieslar died in a car crash near Lodz, central Poland, late Sunday after attending ceremonies in Warsaw that paid tribute to Kaczynski and some 95 other crew and officials who died on April 10.

On Sunday Cieslar was in Warsaw to conduct services and serve as a replacement for a clergyman who had died at Smolensk, the church said in a statement.

Kaczynski and his delegation were en route to Katyn, Russia for ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of a Soviet-era massacre of Polish officers.