Dear Parishioners:
A couple years ago when I was the Pastor at St Gabriel the Archangel we held this exhibit by Carlo Acutis: The Eucharistic Miracles of the World. Its purpose was to foster eucharistic adoration. I appreciate all of our parishioners who regularly make visits before the Blessed Sacrament; your prayers are a gift to our community.
Last week Pope Francis declared Carlo the first millennium saint. Carlo was a 15-year-old Italian web designer is set to become the Catholic Church's first saint from the millennial generation. Last week, in a ceremony called an Ordinary Public Consistory, Pope Francis and the cardinals residing in Rome formally approved the canonization of Carlo Acutis, along with 14 others. No specific date has been set for the canonization of Acutis, who was dubbed "God's Influencer" for his work spreading Catholicism online, but he's likely to be proclaimed a saint in 2025.
Acutis was born to wealthy Italian parents in London in 1991, but the family moved to northern Italy shortly after his birth. His family have said he was a pious child, asking at the age of 7 to receive the first communion.
He went on to attend church and receive communion every day. As he grew older, he became interested in computers and the internet, creating a website on which he catalogued church-approved miracles and appearances of the Virgin Mary throughout history.
According to the Vatican, Acutis was "welcoming and caring towards the poorest, and he helped the homeless, the needy, and immigrants with the money he saved from his weekly allowance."
He reportedly used his first savings to buy a sleeping bag for a homeless man he often met on his way to mass.
Acutis died in October 2006 at the age of 15 in Monza, Italy, of leukemia. Some of the city's poorest residents, whom Acutis had helped, turned out to pay their respects to the teenager at his funeral.
His body lies in an open tomb in Assisi, in central Italy, wearing blue jeans and Nike sneakers.
"I am happy to die because I lived my life without wasting even a minute of it on anything unpleasing to God," Acutis was quoted as saying before he died.
Pope Francis declared Acutis "blessed" in October of 2020, after a miracle attributed to him was approved by the church. That miracle was a young boy in Brazil who was healed of a deadly pancreatic disease after he and his mother prayed to a relic of Acutis. A second miracle was recently recognized opening the way to Carlo’s declaration as the first millennium saint.
God Bless,
Msgr John Shamleffer