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Gazza wrote:
Polish charity refuses 'dirty money' gift from Rolling Stones


A Polish Catholic charity has refused to take a donation from the Rolling Stones for the families of 26 Polish pilgrims killed in a coach crash last week.

The group said it would donate money from ticket sales from its concert in Warsaw to the families of those who died in the coach crash in France.

But the Caritas charity said it wanted nothing to do with the band's offer because the concert was taking place during a period of national mourning for the dead which ends at midnight tonight.




The Rolling Stones are currently touring Poland

Father Zbigniew Sobolewski, a spokesperson for Caritas, said: "We will not be opening any account from which money raised from the organisers or sponsors of the concert might be passed on.

"Caritas Poland wants to respect the time of mourning as an occasion when reflection on life and death and prayer can take place."

But the concert's Polish organisers slammed Caritas' decision.

Anna Tanska of the Viva Art agency said: "Caritas has reached the conclusion that since the money raised by the Rolling Stones will be 'dirty money' then they won't take it for the families of the victims.

"They just prefer it if they don't have anything to do with it and the families don't get the money.

"What good is it if we just fold our arms and do nothing? The victims' families have to live off something. People from show business can help them to some extent, by doing what they do best."




Wreckage: The remains of the bus which was transporting Polish pilgrims from a holy site in the French Alps

She added that they hoped to persuade another charity, the Polsat Foundation, to collect the money although they did not know yet how much it would be.

She said they were expecting 40,000 people to attend and that tickets were sold at between £30 and £200.

She added that there would be a minute's silence at the concert as a mark of respect for those who died.

Meanwhile, though, fellow British rocker Rod Stewart moved a concert which had been planned for Tuesday to Thursday so that it did not take place during the period of national mourning, local media reported.

Before the Rolling Stones even perform there are still fears at one point that the concert may have to be called off after it was reported the band were likely to end up on a blacklist of "Satanic" performers.

Local authorities and the government confirmed they would be consulting a list being drawn up by an NGO called the All-Polish Defence Committee Against Sects (OKOPS), which tries to track down corrupting influences on Polish society and youth.

And government ministries and local authorities said they would use it as a basis of deciding which bands will be banned from performing, and there were fears that it might mean a ban for the Stones concert.

Urszula Sienkiewicz-Nogal of Bialystok city council said: "Nowadays we rarely know anything about the bands that are performing in our city and the list would enable us to identify the dangerous ones much more easily.

"I don't think anyone with common sense would allow concerts by any of the artists included in the document to be carried out."

The Justice and Interior ministries have also said that they have asked for a copy of the list and will be using it in connection with creating and enforcing legislation on cults and sects.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s there were claims the Rolling Stones members supported the occult and Satanism after releasing tracks like Sympathy for the Devil.



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