The beatification of the Servant of God Father John Francis Macha will take place on Saturday, November 20th, at 10 a.m. in Katowice’s Cathedral of Christ the King. The solemn Mass will be presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
The liturgy will be celebrated in Latin and Polish. The beatification rite will follow immediately after the singing of the Kyrie. It will begin with the request of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Katowice to Pope Francis to inscribe the Venerable Servant of God John Francis Macha among the Blesseds. Archbishop Skworc will submit it to the papal delegate, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro. The key moment of the beatification rite will follow the reading of the biography of Venerable John Francis Macha by the postulator – Fr. Damian Bednarski, professor at the University of Silesia. Then, by the mandate of the Holy Father Francis, the Apostolic Letter by which the Pope will inscribe the Venerable Servant of God John Francis Macha among the Blessed will be read out. The Beatification Formula will be delivered first in Latin by the Papal Delegate, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, and then in Polish by the Chancellor of the Metropolitan Curia, Father Jan Smolec.
The reading of the beatification formula will be followed by the unveiling of the image of Blessed John Francis Macha, painted by Prof. Antoni Cygan, former rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. The relics will be brought to the chancel by the family of the new Blessed. These are the last letter written by Fr. John Macha to his parents and siblings shortly before his death, a rosary he made, and a blood-stained handkerchief.
During the beatification, we will hear the Missa Ioannis Pauli Secundi written by Henryk Jan Botor, a composer from Tychy. The composition was first performed during World Youth Day in Krakow in 2016.
Before the Mass at 9 a.m., there will be a prayer vigil prepared, among others, by scholarship recipients of the Work of the New Millennium and the Cordis Theater from Jastrzębie Zdrój. At the end of the vigil, there will be a piece of music for organ and violin composed specially for this occasion by Professor Julian Gembalski. It will be performed on the violin that the Servant of God, Father John Francis Macha, used to play. The instrument has been thoroughly restored in the Artistic Violin-Making Workshop of Aleksandra and Arkadiusz Gromek in Katowice.
The Cathedral will be open to the faithful from 8 a.m. A sector inside the church has been designated for invited guests, while the remaining seats and standing areas are for all those wishing to take part in the ceremony. – “We encourage you to arrive early and take available seats,” says Father Tomasz Wojtal, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Katowice. The organizers have also provided screens so that all those who will not fit in the cathedral can participate. “The first will be set up in the academic church in the cathedral’s basement, and the second in St. John Paul II Square in front of the cathedral,” adds the spokesman.
The organizers encourage people to use public transportation to come to the beatification ceremony. For those who decide to come by car, parking will be available in the area of the Sejmu Śląskiego Square and the “Belg” shopping center. It will not be possible to park vehicles near the cathedral on the following streets: Wita Stwosza, Plebiscytowa, Powstańców, Domina and Czempiela.
“In addition, participants in the liturgy are asked to observe basic sanitary rules: disinfect your hands (at the entrance to the cathedral), cover your mouth and nose with a mask, and keep a proper distance,” the spokesman appeals on behalf of the organizers.
Fr. Rafał Skitek /Radio eM Katowice
The Servant of God Fr. John Macha was born on 18 January 1914, into the traditional Silesian family of Paweł Macha and Anna, born Cofałka, in Chorzów Stary. He had two sisters and a brother. In the family, he was nicknamed “Hanik.” He was active in scouting and sports. He was also actively participated in the Catholic Youth Association. In 1934 he entered the Silesian Theological Seminary in Cracow. On 25 June 1939, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Stanislaw Adamski at the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Katowice. After a two-month substitution in his home parish, on September 10th he took the position of vicar at the parish church of St. Joseph in Ruda Śląska. There he established contact with the secret organization and developed a lively charitable activity among Polish families affected by the occupation. On 5 September 1941, Father John Macha was arrested by the Gestapo at the railway station in Katowice. He was found carrying a list of people he and his associates had helped and other documents indicating that they had collected money and given it to the needy. The list was one of the main pieces of evidence in the subsequent investigation and trial of the entire group. On 17 July 1942, a short hearing was held before the summary court in Katowice, at which Father Macha and his collaborating seminarian Guertler were sentenced to death by beheading. The sentence was carried out on 3 December 1942, in Katowice prison. Fr. Macha’s body, never released to his family, was most probably burned in the concentration camp in Auschwitz. In a letter written a few hours before his execution, Fr. Macha asked his family to arrange a “quiet corner in the cemetery so that from time to time someone would remember me and say the Our Father for me.” His request was granted years later, in October 1951, when, on the initiative of his classmates, a symbolic grave was established for Fr. John in the old cemetery of St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Chorzow Stary. At the diocesan level, Fr. Jan Macha’s beatification process began in 2013 and continued until 5 September 2015. The documentation was then submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On 16 March 2016, the file was publicly opened, and the Roman stage of the beatification process began. The decree confirming the martyrdom of the Servant of God Fr. John Francis Macha, a priest of the Archdiocese of Katowice, was approved by Pope Francis on 28 November 2019. The future Blessed is to be made patron of, among others, the Higher Silesian Seminary in Katowice.
