Blessed Carlo Acutis: Lessons to learn from first saint candidate in sneakers
MANILA, Philippines — Catholic Italian teenager Carlo Acutis was beatified by Pope Francis in October 10, 2020 in Assisi, hometown of Carlo's favorite saint, Francis of Assisi.
A gamer and computer programmer, Carlo died in 2006 due to leukemia. He was only 15.
He offered his sufferings for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Church, saying: "I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church.”
Since he was born in 1991 and was encased in a glass coffin in his signature sneakers, sweater and jeans, Carlo was dubbed as on-track to become the first “Millennial” saint. Once canonized, reports said he would become the first "saint in sneakers" or the so-called "patron saint of geeks."
For people worldwide celebrating All Saints' Day, here are the saintly attributes that can be learned from Carlo:
????VIDEO | Highlights of the Beatification Mass of Carlo Acutis celebrated in Assisi, Italy. His parents and siblings attended the ceremony. His heart was presented as a relic. Blessed #CarloAcutis, pray for us! pic.twitter.com/GcZog96vyZ
— EWTN News (@EWTNews) October 10, 2020
True child of God
Carlo has a special love for God growing up. His parents said that after he made his first communion, Carlo went to mass as often as he could, went to confession weekly, prayed the rosary and asked his parents to take him to pilgrimages.
Daily habit of holiness
According to the priest who promoted his sainthood, Carlo "managed to drag his relatives, his parents to Mass every day. It was not the other way around; it was not his parents bringing the little boy to Mass, but it was he who managed to get himself to Mass and to convince others to receive the Communion daily."
Defended bullied kids
Carlo was known for defending bullied kids in school, especially children with special needs.
God's 'influencer'
As a computer programmer, he built websites that aimed to evangelize. The most famous of his websites is "Miracoli Eucaristici" ("The Eucharistic Miracles of the World") that catalogues global incidences wherein the Host has "turned into human flesh and blood."
According to him, he built the site because "the more often we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven."
Helping even after death
Last August, a major relic of Acutis arrived in the Diocese of Malolos in the Philippines.
Bishop Dennis Villarojo led in welcoming the relic, "ex corpore et ex capillis" (from the body and hair), with a Mass at the Malolos Cathedral last July 27.
Related: Philippines receives Blessed Carlo Acutis relic
In February 22, 2020, Pope Francis approved Carlo's advancement as a candidate for sainthood when a Brazilian boy was healed from a rare pancreas disease after he touched Carlo's picture.
Acutis’ mother, Antonia Salzano, told Catholic News Service: “Pope Francis has always been close to Carlo; he quoted him in Christus Vivit, and this was a great privilege in that he cited him as an example for young people in the whole world."
In Pope Francis’s exhortation on young people, "Christus Vivit" (“Christ Lives”), he said that Acutis was a role model for today's young people.
“Carlo was well-aware that the whole apparatus of communications, advertising and social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism and buying the latest thing on the market, obsessed with our free time, caught up in negativity,” the Pope wrote.
RELATED: Techie teenager Carlo Acutis showed for veneration in preparation for beatification
