Pope Francis: Blessed Carlo Acutis is a model for young people to put God first

Blessed Carlo Acutis, a Catholic teenager with an aptitude for computer programming, became the first millennial to be declared 'Blessed' on 10 October.

Pope Francis said on Sunday that the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis provides young people with a testimony that true happiness is found when God is put first.

“Carlo Acutis, a fifteen-year-old boy in love with the Eucharist, was beatified yesterday in Assisi. He did not settle down in a comfortable inaction, but he grasped the needs of his time because in the weakest he saw the face of Christ “, said Pope Francis in his address to the Angelus on 11 October.

“His testimony shows today's youth that true happiness is found by putting God first and serving him in our brothers, especially the least. Let's applaud the new young Blessed ”, the Pope said to the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

Blessed Carlo Acutis, a Catholic teenager with an aptitude for computer programming and a great devotion to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, became the first millennial to be declared 'Blessed' on 10 October.

At the age of 15, Acutis was diagnosed with leukemia in 2006. She offered her sufferings for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Church, saying: “I offer all the sufferings I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the pope and for the Church. "

Pope Francis first presented Acutis as an example for young people in the post-syondal apostolic exhortation on young people, Christus Vivit. The pope wrote that Acutis' provided a model of how young people can use the Internet and technology to spread the Gospel.

“It is true that the digital world can expose you to the risk of self-absorption, isolation and empty pleasure. But don't forget that there are young people there too who show creativity and even genius. This was the case with the venerable Carlo Acutis, ”the pope wrote in 2018.

“Carlo knew well that the entire apparatus of communication, advertising and social networks can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism and the purchase of the latest news on the market, obsessed with our free time, taken by negativity. Yet he knew how to use the new communication technology to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values ​​and beauty “.

In his Angelus message, Pope Francis said that the Church today is called to reach the geographical and existential peripheries of humanity where people can find themselves on the fringes without hope.

The pope urged people "not to rest in comfortable and customary ways of evangelization and witness of charity, but to open the doors of our hearts and our communities to everyone because the Gospel is not reserved for a select few".

"Even those on the fringes, even those who are rejected and despised by society, are considered by God worthy of His love," he added.

The Lord "prepares his banquet for all: just and sinful, good and bad, intelligent and ignorant," said the pope, referring to chapter 22 of Matthew's Gospel.

“The habit of mercy, which God offers us ceaselessly, is a free gift of his love… And it requires to be received with amazement and joy”, said Francis.

After reciting the Angelus, the pope prayed for the victims of the violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan, expressing his gratitude for the ceasefire.

Pope Francis also encouraged all lay people, especially women, to exercise Christian leadership by virtue of their baptism.

"We need to promote the integration of women in places where important decisions are made," she said.

"We pray that, by virtue of baptism, the lay faithful, especially women, will participate more in institutions of responsibility in the Church, without falling into the clericalisms that nullify the lay charism and also ruin the face of the Holy Mother Church".