Prayers for the soul of Cardinal Franciszek Macharski
(Vadio Radio) Polish Cardinal
Franciszek Macharski, formerly the Archbishop of Krakow and the immediated
successor of Karol Wojtyla in the Chair of St Stanislaus, passed away on
Tuesday morning. He was 89 years old. Last Thursday, during the Apostolic
Voyage to Poland, Pope Francis was able to visit the gravely ill Cardinal in
the Krakow Hospital.
With the death of Cardinal
Macharski, there are now 112 Cardinal eligible to vote in a conclave, and 99
Cardinals over 80, and thus unable to vote.
Biography of Cardinal
Franciszek Macharski
Cardinal Franciszek
Macharski, Archbishop emeritus of Kraków (Poland), was born on 20 May 1927 in
the city of Krakow. During the war, under German occupation, he was a labourer.
Following the liberation in 1945, he entered the metropolitan major seminary of
Kraków. At the same time he studied theology at the Jagiellonian University.
After finishing his studies in theology and philosophy, he was ordained a
priest on 2 April 1950 by the then Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Sapieha.
For six years, the young
priest served as vicar in the parish of Kozy, near Bielsko-Biała. In 1956 he
transferred to Switzerland, Fribourg, to continue his theological studies at
the local Catholic University where in 1960 he received a doctorate in pastoral
theology. Returning to Krakow, he was named spiritual director of the
metropolitan seminary and dedicated himself to teaching pastoral theology at
the Pontifical Faculty of Theology at Kraków. Ten years later, in 1970, he was
nominated rector of the same seminary, which is one of the most frequented and
important major seminaries in Poland. In 1977 he was nominated canon of the
metropolitan chapter of the cathedral of Wawel by the then Archbishop of
Kraków, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła. Cardinal Macharski has also been at the Pope’s
side during such trips abroad to Canada, USA, France, Germany and Italy.
John Paul II nominated him as
his successor to the Metropolitan See of Kraków on 29 December 1978. He
personally conferred episcopal ordination on 6 January 1979 in St. Peter’s
Basilica in the presence of many Cardinals, Bishops and a multitude of pilgrims,
many of whom came from Kraków for the occasion.
Cardinal Macharski is noted
as a man of culture, scholar and writer. He has dedicated particular care to
promoting priestly and religious vocations and to the theological-spiritual
formation of future priests. Within the Polish episcopate, even prior to his
nomination as archbishop, he contributed his thought and experience by
participating in the various commissions. During the plenary assembly of the
Polish bishops held in Warsaw 6-8 February 1979, he was made president of the
commission of lay ministry; the same commission of which the Holy Father, the
then Archbishop of Kraków was president from 1966 to 1978, while Macharski was
secretary.
President Delegate of the
Second Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops (1-23 October 1999).
Archbishop emeritus of
Kraków, 3 June 2005.
He participated in the
conclave of April 2005, which elected Pope Benedict XVI.
Created and proclaimed
Cardinal by St. John Paul II in the consistory of 30 June 1979, of the Title of
S. Giovanni a Porta Latina (St. John at the Latin Gate).
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