Carlo Acutis, the saint next door: A teen computer whiz becomes church’s first millennial saint

CHICAGO AP At a Catholic school in Pope Leo XIV s hometown fifth graders read comic books about Carlo Acutis life titled Digital Disciple They draw pictures of what the teenage Italian computer whiz might have had as his cellphone wallpaper They discuss the miracles that allegedly occurred thanks to Acutis intercession In the lead-up to Acutis canonization on Sunday it s all Acutis all the time at the Fortunate Carlo Acutis Parish and school in Chicago The parish was the first in the United States to take its name from Acutis who died in at age and is about to become history s first millennial saint In up-to-date years Acutis has shot to near rock star-like fame among plenty of young Catholics generating a global following the likes of which the Catholic Church hasn t seen in ages Much of that popularity is thanks to a concerted campaign by the Vatican to give the next generation of faithful a relatable modern-day role model who used his technological talents to spread the faith He s not a world figure like Mother Teresa or St John Paul II but rather a saint next door disclosed the Rev Ed Howe the pastor at Favored Carlo Acutis Parish in Chicago s Northwest Side He s someone who I think a lot of young people at present say I could be the saint next door ' Howe explained Pope Leo XIV s first canonization Leo a Chicago native will declare Acutis a saint on Sunday in his first canonization ceremony alongside another popular Italian Pier Giorgio Frassati Both ceremonies had been scheduled for earlier this year but were postponed following Pope Francis death in April It was Francis who had fervently willed the Acutis sainthood episode forward convinced that the church needed someone like him to attract young Catholics to the faith while addressing the promises and perils of the digital age Acutis was precociously savvy with computers before the social media era reading college-level textbooks on offerings and coding as a youngster But he limited himself to an hour of video games a week apparently deciding long before TikTok that human relationships were far more essential than virtual ones 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 arena Francis wrote in a document Yet he knew how to use the new communications instrument to transmit the Gospel to communicate values and beauty Leo inherited the Acutis cause but he too has pointed to machinery especially artificial intelligence as one of the main challenges facing humanity The ordinary and the extraordinary For his admirers Acutis was an ordinary kid who did extraordinary things a typical Milan teen who went to school played soccer and loved animals But he also brought food to the poor attended Mass daily and got his less-than-devout parents back to church When I read his story for the first time it was just like shocking to me because from a very early age he was just really drawn to Jesus Christ and he would go to Mass all the time stated Sona Harrison an eighth grader at the St John Berchmans school which is part of the Acutis parish I feel like he s a lot more relatable and I definitely feel like I m closer to God when I read about him Acutis earned the nickname God s Influencer because he used equipment to spread the faith His majority well-known tech legacy is the website he created about so-called Eucharistic miracles available in nearly different languages The site compiles information about the seemingly inexplicable events over the history of the church related to the Eucharist which the faithful believe is the body of Christ Acutis was known to spend hours in prayer before the Eucharist each day a practice known as Eucharistic adoration This was the fixed appointment of his day his mother Antonia Salzano stated in a documentary that was airing Friday night at the U S seminary in Rome A fast-track to sainthood Acutis was born on May in London to Salzano and Andrea Acutis a wealthy but not particularly observant Catholic family They moved back to Milan soon after he was born and he enjoyed a typical happy childhood albeit marked by his increasingly intense religious devotion In October at age he fell ill with what was fleetly diagnosed as acute leukemia Within days he was dead He was entombed in Assisi which known for its association with another popular saint St Francis In a remarkably quick process Acutis was beatified in and last year Francis approved the second miracle needed for him to be made a saint In the years since his death young Catholics have flocked by the millions to Assisi where through a glass-sided tomb they can see the young Acutis dressed in jeans Nike sneakers and a sweatshirt his hands clasped around a Rosary Those who can t make it in person can watch the comings and goings on a webcam pointed at his tomb a level of Internet accessibility not afforded to even popes buried in St Peter s Basilica Kathleen Sprows Cummings a history professor at the University of Notre Dame declared that Acutis enormous popularity was clearly the development of a concerted church campaign pushed strongly by his grief-stricken mother But she reported that is nothing new and that in the -year history of the church saints have very often been pushed ahead to respond to a particular need at a particular time It doesn t detract from the holiness of the person being honored to say that there are choices that are made about which cases move forward she reported in a phone interview Sprows Cummings mentioned that the Acutis phenomenon caught on because he s attractive to both young people and the institutional church using apparatus in a positive way to spread his profound belief in Eucharistic miracles at a time when a great number of Catholics don t believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist Canonization is about marketing declared Sprows Cummings author of A Saint of Our Own How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics become American Which stories are going to get communicated Who is going to get remembered through this amazingly efficient way of remembering holy people Acutis and his story are ever-present here During Mass this week before the canonization students processed into the chapel under an Acutis banner carrying things he might have had a soccer ball laptop and knapsack Howe the parish pastor and priest of the Congregation of the Resurrection pulled items out of the knapsack to explain Acutis story to the youngest students seated up front A can of food he might have given to a homeless person a set of Rosary beads he might have prayed with The message landed He fed the poor he cared for the poor noted -year-old David Cameron who called Acutis a great man Cameron a fan of Sonic Minecraft and Halo also identified inspiration in Acutis love of video games and awe at his restraint He played video games for like only one hour a week which I don t think I can do he declared Nicole Winfield shared from Vatican City Associated Press religion coverage receives help through the AP s collaboration with The Conversation US with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc The AP is solely responsible for this content Source