Cardinal Semeraro: Let Us Imitate the Devotion of Our New Blessed
Do not fail to call upon Blessed Fr. John Macha for your Church so that she may always be united with her bishop in promoting charity, eliminating divisions, and fighting injustice – said Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in his homily at the Mass for the beatification of Fr. John Macha.
Cardinal Semeraro acknowledged that Blessed John Francis Macha bears witness that everyone on this earth was created to fulfill a specific mission. “He defines good as something greater than the interest of the individual: the pursuit of happiness is authentic if it contributes to the defense of justice, the service of the common good, sharing, hospitality, respecting, caring for the needs of others. Finally, he encourages us to remain with the Lord, to seek Him in prayer and interior dialogue, and to glorify Him with a holy life,” he said.
The prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints noted that this young priest is given back to the Upper Silesian Church. “Receive him as a Blessed, a patron and intercessor before the Lord,” he stressed. He added that we can entrust to the intercession of the new Blessed especially prayers for seminarians and priests, in particular the youngest ones.
“Pray also to Blessed John Francis Macha for all the needs of families and society. Do not fail to invoke him for your Church, so that she may always be united with her bishop in promoting charity, eliminating divisions, and fighting injustice,” Cardinal Semeraro said. “Accept the invitation of this priest, elevated today to the glory of the altars, to open new spaces of encounter with young people and engage them in the service of the Gospel in the various states of Christian life,” he added.
Referring to the ongoing Synod on synodality, Cardinal Semeraro called for steps to be taken on the synodal journey with this awareness: “the family of God’s children has much to say to the modern world, much to offer for the good of all. Communion, participation, and mission will make the Church more capable of dialogue with these epochal changes we are experiencing. May this synodal path, which the community of your Church is also following, be illuminated by the message of the life of the new Blessed,” he underscored.
Cardinal Semeraro concluded by calling the faithful to imitate the piety of the new Blessed, “who in the days of his imprisonment, wove the rosary from pieces of string in order to be able to pray it.”
Press Office of the Polish Bishops’ Conference
