VATICAN
CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis formally recognized a miracle attributed to the
intercession of Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian teenager who the pope has
said is a role model for young men and women today.
Soon-to-be Blessed Carlo Acutis
Born: May 3, 1991 Died: Oct. 12, 2006 Declared Servant of God: May 13, 2013 Declared Venerable: July 5, 2018 Miracle recognized for Beatification: Feb. 22, 2020
In a
meeting Feb. 22 with Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, prefect of the
Congregation for Saints’ Causes, the pope advanced the sainthood causes of
Acutis, as well as one woman and seven men, including Jesuit Father Rutilio Grande and his two
companions who were murdered in El Salvador in 1977.
The
Vatican announced Feb. 23 that the pope had signed the decrees.
Antonia
Salzano, Acutis’ mother, told Catholic News Service Feb. 24 that the news of
the pope’s approval made her “really, really happy.”
“Pope
Francis has always been close to Carlo; he quoted him in ‘Christus Vivit,’ and
this was a great privilege in that he cited him as an example for young people
in the whole world,” Salzano said.
In “Christus Vivit (Christ Lives),” Pope Francis’ exhortation on young people, he said the teen was a role model for young people today who are often tempted by the traps of “self-absorption, isolation and empty pleasure.”
“Carlo
was well-aware that the whole apparatus of communications, advertising and
social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism
and buying the latest thing on the market, obsessed with our free time, caught
up in negativity,” the pope wrote.
“Yet he
knew how to use the new communications technology to transmit the Gospel, to
communicate values and beauty,” he said.
Before
his death from leukemia in 2006, Acutis was an average teen with an
above-average knack for computers. He put that knowledge to use by creating an
online database of Eucharistic miracles around the world.
Salzano told CNS that her son’s work, which included a traveling exhibition of Eucharistic miracles, has been displayed “on every continent” and was the inspiration behind the documentary, “Segni” (“Signs”) which was produced by the Vatican Dicastery for Communication in October 2018.
His
devotion to spreading the word about Eucharistic miracles around the world, as
well as his upcoming beatification “is an occasion to make Carlo’s spirituality
known to those who don’t know him,” Salzano said.
“Carlo
did it with great love because he wanted everyone to love the Blessed Sacrament
and place it first, something that he would do by going to Mass every day as
well as participating in the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament,” she said.
The
miracle approved by the pope involved the healing of a young Brazilian boy
afflicted with a rare congenital disease of the pancreas, Salzano told CNS.
For three
days, the child’s family prayed a novena “with a priest who was devoted to
Carlo. On the third day, the child said he wanted to eat” after days of not
being able to eat solid foods, she said. The doctors later discovered that he
was completely healed.
While the
Vatican has not announced the date of his beatification, Salzano said a request
was made for it to be held May 1 in Assisi.
As part of the canonization process, Acutis’ body was exhumed and transferred to a place suitable for public veneration, the Shrine of the Renunciation at the Church of St. Mary Major in Assisi in 2019.
The other
decrees approved by Pope Francis Feb. 22 recognized:
The miracle needed for the canonization of Blessed Devasahayam Pillai, an 18th-century Indian martyr. He was born in 1712 and died in 1752.
The miracle needed for the canonization of Blessed Anna Maria Rubatto, founder of the order now known as the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto. She was born in Carmagnola, Italy, in 1844 and died in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1904.
The heroic virtues of Italian Father Emilio Venturini, founder of the Congregation of the Sister Servants of Our Lady of Sorrows. He was born in Chioggia in 1842 and died there in 1905.
The heroic virtues of Italian Father Pirro Scavizzi, a diocesan priest. He was born in Gubbio in 1884 and died in Rome in 1964.
The heroic virtues of Italian Stigmatine Father Emilio Recchia, who was born in Verona in 1888 and died there in 1969.
The heroic virtues of Mario Hiriart Pulido, a Chilean layman and member of the Schoenstatt movement. He was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1931 and died in 1964 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while seeking medical care.