Carlo Acutis - next teenage role model

Carlo Acutis

Soon To Be Beatified, Italian Teenager is a ‘Model Of Sanctity’ - Jonathan Luxmoore

Carlo Acutis, a London-born Italian teenager, who used his computer skills to foster devotion to the Eucharist. He will be beatified in October and “he offers a model of sanctity for Christians in a new era of lockdowns”, said Anna Johnstone, a British Catholic who lived with his family. “What’s struck me most is the exceptional simplicity of his formula for becoming a saint: attending Mass and reciting the rosary daily, confessing weekly and praying before the Blessed Sacrament.”

Anna Johnstone is a professional singer and long-term friend of the teen’s family.

“At a time when new lockdowns could separate us from the sacraments, he would encourage people to see the rosary as their domestic church and find shelter in the heart of the Virgin Mary.”

Carlo, who died of leukaemia in 2006 at age 15, will be beatified on the 10^th October in the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, in Assisi. The ceremony has been postponed from earlier in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic to allow more young people to attend.

The teenager developed a database and website that chronicle worldwide eucharistic miracles.

“Carlo was convinced good could be achieved through the internet. He would urge young people today to avoid bad aspects of social media and fake news, and to go to confession if they fell prey to it,” said Johnstone, a Cambridge University theology graduate who also acted as tutor to Carlo’s twin siblings. “But he would also show how the power of the lay life rests in simple, regular devotions. If we’re forced to stay home, with churches closed, we can still find spiritual harbour in Our Lady.”

Born in London May 3, 1991, where his Italian mother and half-English father were studying and working, Carlo received his first Holy communion at age 7 after the family moved to Milan.

He died on the 12^th October 2006, a year after using self-taught skills to create a website, www.miracolieucaristici.org . The site lists more than 100 eucharistic miracles in 17 languages.

Carlo combined the generosity and courtesy of intelligent and hard-working parents, which imbued him with a sense of purpose and direction. God was the direct driving force behind his religious journey, which later brought his agnostic mother, Antonia Salzano, to the faith.

“Young people sometimes have very intense religious experiences, which can’t be properly understood by others. Though we can’t be privy to what happened, God clearly intervened here,” said Johnstone, who leads rosary groups and exhibitions on the teenager.

His beatification was approved by Pope Francis on the 21^st February after recognition of a miracle due to his intercession involving the 2013 cure of a Brazilian boy.

Johnstone said the “first big surprise” for the Acutis family had been the huge turnout for his funeral, adding that the rector of his Milan parish, Santa Maria della Segreta, had realized “something was happening”, when he later received calls from Catholic groups in Brazil and elsewhere, asking to “see where Carlo worshipped.”

“The family has a new life now, but are deeply involved in continuing Carlo’s work, helping with investigations and facilitating access to relevant resources,” said Johnstone, whose father, a former Anglican vicar, became a Catholic priest in 1999. “Although press coverage has stressed Carlo’s role as a computer geek, his greatest focus was on the Eucharist as what he called his highway to heaven. Though we can’t all be skilled with computers, we can all become saints even during lockdowns, and get to heaven by placing Jesus at the heart of our daily lives,” said Johnstone.

Pope Francis commended Carlo Acutis as a role model in “Christus Vivit” (“Christ Lives”), the 2019 exhortation on young people, saying the teen offered an example for those who fall into “self-absorption, isolation and empty pleasure… Carlo was well aware the whole apparatus of communications, advertising and social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism. Yet he knew how to use the new communications technology to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values and beauty,” the pope wrote.

• First published by Catholic News Service (CNS) · JUNE 23, 2020