NEW SAINT FOR COMPUTER AGE

Our computer age, especially for youth, will have a new patron saint in October, when VENERABLE CARLOS ACUTIS (see Blogs7/10-18 & 12/7/13)  is beatified in Assisi, Italy at the Basilica of Saint Francis.  He is currently buried in Assisi’s Church of St. Mary Major, which is down the mountain from St. Francis' Church.

The date for the beatification was announced the same week as the feast of Corpus Christi, which is fitting as Ven. Carlos had a great devotion to the Eucharist and Eucharistic miracles.  Our new Archbishop of Seattle, Paul Etienne, has proclaimed this year for our Archdiocese the Year of the Eucharist, beginning on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ on June 14, and concluding with the same solemnity on Sunday, June 6, 2021. "This is to be a time for catechesis and teaching for everyone on the topic of the Eucharist. With zeal and patience, pastors of souls must promote the liturgical instruction of the faithful, and also their active participation, both internal and external.”

The Venerable Carlos, who died of leukemia at the age of 15, offered his suffering for the pope and for the Church. He was born in London on May 3, 1991 to Italian parents who soon returned to Milan. He was a pious child, attending daily Mass, frequently praying the rosary, and making weekly confessions.

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 Venerable Carlos was exceptionally gifted with computers. In Christus Vivit, the apostolic exhortation published after the 2018 Synod of Bishops on young people, Pope Francis offered  Carlos Acutis as a model of holiness in a digital age. He took the initiative of Bl. James Alberione Father of New Evangelization, (See Blog  4/13/18) to use the media to evangelize seriously and made a website catalog of all the Eucharistic miracles reported throughout the world. Carlos also loved film and comic editing and has been called a “computer geek”.

The miracle that paved the way for the young man’s beatification involved the healing of a Brazilian child suffering from a rare congenital anatomic anomaly of the pancreas in 2013. The Medical Council of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes gave a positive opinion of the miracle last November, and Pope Francis approved the miracle in February

Not only was he devoted to the Eucharist, but he had a great love of the Mother of God and Eucharist. Carlos would console and support friends whose parents were going through divorces and advocated for the rights of the disabled, often defending peers with disabilities from bullies at school.

 “The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.”

In this day when our youth are "addicted" to everything digital, may he be an example of a true lover of Christ,
who found balance in his young life.