Carlo Acutis to be beatified. He offer model of sanctity to young people

OXFORD, England (06/20/2020) Carlo Acutis, a London-born Italian teenager who used his computer skills to foster devotion to the Eucharist and will be beatified in October, offers a model of holiness for Christians in a new era of confinement, said a British Catholic who lived with his family.

Young Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15, will be beatified on October 10 in the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy. The ceremony had been postponed since the spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic to allow more young people to attend.

The teenager developed a database and website that chronicles Eucharistic miracles around the world.

"What has struck me most is the exceptional simplicity of his formula for becoming a saint: attend Mass and recite the rosary daily, go to confession weekly and pray before the Blessed Sacrament," said Anna Johnstone, a professional singer and longtime friend of the teenager´s family.

"At a time when new confinements could separate us from the sacraments, I would encourage people to see the rosary as their domestic church and to find refuge in the heart of the Virgin Mary," Johnstone told Catholic News Service.

Johnstone said Acutis was convinced that "good could be achieved through the Internet. He said Catholics around the world had found the information he spread by "mass affirmation" during the global coronavirus pandemic.

"I would urge today´s young people to avoid the bad aspects of social media and false news, and to go to confession if they fall prey to them," said Johnstone, a theology graduate from Cambridge University who also acted as a teacher to Acutis´ twin brothers, born four years after his death.

"But it would also show how the power of lay life rests in simple and regular devotions. If we are forced to stay at home, with the churches closed, we can still find a spiritual port in Our Lady," she said.

Biography of Carlo Acutis.

Born in London on May 3, 1991, where his Italian mother and half-English father studied and worked, Carlo Acutis received his first communion at age 7 after the family moved to Milan.

He died on October 12, 2006, a year after using his self-taught skills to create a website, www.miracolieucaristici.org, which lists over 100 Eucharistic miracles in 17 languages.

Johnstone said Acutis had combined the generosity and courtesy of smart, hardworking parents, which instilled in him a "sense of purpose and direction.

He added that he was helped by the "friendly influences" of a Polish Catholic nanny and Catholic sisters while at school. He said he believed God had been the "direct driving force" behind the boy´s religious journey, which later led his agnostic mother, Antonia Salzano, to faith.

"Children sometimes have very intense religious experiences, which cannot be adequately understood by others. Although we cannot be aware of what happened, God clearly intervened here," said Johnstone, who leads rosary groups and exhibitions about the teenager.

His beatification was approved by Pope Francis on February 21 after the recognition of a miracle through his intercession involving the healing in 2013 of a Brazilian boy.

Johnstone said the "first big surprise" for Acutis´ family had been the large turnout at his funeral, adding that the rector of his Milan parish, Santa Maria della Segreta, had realized "something was going on" when he later received calls from Catholic groups in Brazil and elsewhere asking to "see where Carlo was being venerated.

"The family has a new life now, but they are deeply involved in continuing Carlo´s work, helping with research and facilitating access to relevant resources," said Johnstone, whose father, a former Anglican vicar, became a Catholic priest in 1999.

"While press coverage has highlighted Carlo´s role as an IT geek, his main focus has been on the Eucharist as what he called his path to heaven. Although we can´t all be computer literate, we can all become saints even during the confines, and get to heaven by placing Jesus at the heart of our daily lives,", he told CNS.

Pope Francis praised Acutis as a model to follow in "Christus Vivit" ("Christ Is Alive"), his 2019 exhortation to young people, saying that the adolescent offered an example for those who fall into "self-absorption, isolation and empty pleasure.

"Carlo Acutis was well aware that the entire communications apparatus, advertising and social networks can be used to lull us to sleep, to make us addicted to consumerism," the Pope wrote.

"However, he knew how to use the new communications technology to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values and beauty."