Beatification of Carlo Acutis: the first millennial to be declared Blessed

With the beatification of Carlo Acutis in Assisi on Saturday, the Catholic Church now has its first "Blessed" who loved Super Mario and Pokémon, but not as much as he loved the Real Presence of Jesus the Eucharist.

“To be always united with Jesus, this is my life program”, wrote Carlo Acutis at the age of seven.

The young Italian computer wizard, who died of leukemia at the age of 15 while offering his suffering for the pope and the Church, was beatified on 10 October with a mass in the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi.

Born in 1991, Acutis is the first millennial beatified by the Catholic Church. The teenager who had an aptitude for computer programming is now one step away from canonization.

"Since he was a child ... he had his gaze turned to Jesus. Love for the Eucharist was the foundation that kept his relationship with God alive. He often said:" The Eucharist is my way to heaven ", said the cardinal Agostino Vallini in the homily for the beatification.

“Carlo felt a strong need to help people discover that God is close to us and that it is nice to be with him to enjoy his friendship and his grace,” Vallini said.

During the beatification Mass, Acutis' parents tried behind a relic of their son's heart that was placed near the altar. An apostolic letter from Pope Francis in which the pope declared that the feast of Carlo Acutis will take place every year on October 12, the anniversary of his death in Milan in 2006, was read aloud.

Masked pilgrims scattered in front of the Basilica of San Francesco and in the various squares of Assisi to attend mass on large screens as only a limited number of people were allowed inside.

The beatification of Acutis attracted about 3.000 people to Assisi, including people who knew Acutis personally and many other young people inspired by his testimony.

Mattia Pastorelli, 28, was a childhood friend of Acutis, who first met him when they were both about five years old. He remembers playing video games, including Halo, with Carlo. (Acutis' mother also told CNA that Super Mario and Pokémon were Carlo's favorites.)

“Having a friend who is about to become a saint is a very strange emotion,” Pastorelli told CNA on 10 October. "I knew he was different from the others, but now I realize how special he was."

“I saw him programming websites… He was really an incredible talent,” he added.

In his homily, Cardinal Vallini, papal legate for the Basilica of San Francesco, greeted Acutis as a model of how young people can use technology at the service of the Gospel to "reach as many people as possible and help them to know the beauty of friendship. with the Lord “.

For Charles, Jesus was "the strength of his life and the purpose of everything he did," said the cardinal.

“He was convinced that to love people and do them good it is necessary to draw energy from the Lord. In this spirit he was very devoted to Our Lady, ”he added.

“His ardent desire was also to attract as many people to Jesus, making himself a herald of the Gospel above all with the example of life”.

At a young age, Acutis learned programming on his own and continued to create websites that cataloged the world's Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions.

“The Church rejoices, because in this very young Blessed the Lord's words are fulfilled: 'I have chosen you and I have appointed you to go and bear much fruit'. And Charles 'went' and bore the fruit of holiness, showing it as a goal that can be reached by all and not as something abstract and reserved for the few, ”said the cardinal.

"He was an ordinary boy, simple, spontaneous, nice ... he loved nature and animals, played football, had many friends of his age, was attracted to modern social media, passionate about computer science and, self-taught, built websites to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values ​​and beauty ”, he said.

Assisi celebrates the beatification of Carlo Acutis with more than two weeks of liturgies and events from 1 to 17 October. In this period you can see images of a young Acutis standing with a gigantic monstrance containing the Eucharist in front of the churches scattered around the city of San Francesco and Santa Chiara.

People lined up to pray in front of the tomb of Carlo Acutis, located in the Sanctuary of the Spoliation of Assisi in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. The church extended its hours until midnight throughout the beatification weekend to allow as many people as possible to worship Acutis, with social distancing measures in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Fr Boniface Lopez, a Franciscan Capuchin based in the church, told CNA that he noticed that many people who visited Acutis tomb also took advantage of the opportunity to confess, which is offered in many languages ​​during the 17 days in which the body of Acutis is visible for the vein.

“Many people come to see Carlo to ask for his blessing… also many young people; they come for confessions, they come because they want to change their lives and want to get close to God and truly experience God ”, p. Lopez said.

During a youth vigil the evening before the beatification, the pilgrims gathered outside the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi while the priests listened to confessions inside.

Churches throughout Assisi also offered additional hours of Eucharistic adoration on the occasion of Acutis' beatification.

Lopez said he also met many nuns and priests who came on pilgrimage to see Actutis. “Religious come here to ask for his blessing to help them cultivate a greater love for the Eucharist”.

As Acutis once said: “When we face the sun we get a tan… but when we stand before Jesus the Eucharist we become saints”.