To hear the international media tell it, Poland's current row over the wooden cross in front of the Presidential Palace on Krakowskie Przedmieście is a symptom of a sharp cultural divide that is now beginning to manifest itself more visibly.

Certainly that's part of it, but the reports, in the English-language mass media at least, verge on the simplistic. They portray the conflict as one of young-versus-old, rural-versus-urban, educated-versus-non-educated and, especially, religious-versus-secular.

But as those of us living here in Poland know, the divide is more complex than that.

Poland is often described as a “deeply Catholic” country – and that is more-or-less accurate. After all, about 90 percent of the population is Catholic, with around 75 percent practicing. But many polls have found that around two-thirds of Poland's population want to see the cross moved. Therefore there must be a huge number of practicing, even devout Catholics here, who favor its removal.

Several Poles I have spoken with refused to give credence to the idea that the conflict is more about secularization than pure politics. “The people defending the cross are just plain crazy,” said one, who considers herself a devout Catholic. “They're not real Catholics – what Catholic would treat a priest like that?” asked another, referring to some of the slurs the so-called “defenders” hurled at  priests when they attempted to move the cross a couple of weeks ago.

The upshot is this: the divide emerging in Poland is not so much of a religious-secular one as it is a modernist-traditionalist one. Many young, educated Poles believe that one can be both Catholic and modern at the same time. Those who oppose the cross' removal, however, feel that they must defend symbols they associate with traditional Polish values wherever they appear – even if that is in front of the Presidential Palace – to avoid them being erased altogether.

Surely, the modernists are right. Poland must move forward, but that doesn't mean that its citizens – including the country's many Catholics – have to abandon their values.