(Catholic News Agency) Fr. Jan Macha will be declared blessed at a Mass on Nov. 20 in the Cathedral of Christ the King, Katowice, southern Poland.
The Mass will be celebrated by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Macha, known as Hanik, was ordained a priest months before Nazi Germans invaded Poland in 1939. He offered aid to families who lost members in the fighting and was a member of an underground group codenamed โKonwaliaโ (Lily of the Valley).
The Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany, arrested him on Sept. 5, 1941, at a train station in Katowice, Upper Silesia. After humiliating interrogations, he was sentenced to death on July 17, 1942.
He was executed by guillotine at a prison in Katowice at 12:15 a.m. on Dec. 3, 1942, despite his motherโs efforts to secure a pardon.
He was 28 years old when he died and had served only 1,257 days as a priest. His body was never recovered.
Welcoming the beatification, Archbishop Wiktor Skworc of Katowice said: โThe beatification is certainly a very important event for our local Church. I am happy that our Hanik will be proclaimed blessed. He has waited a long time for this, and so have we.โ
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