Blessed Carlo Acutis, who was the young man who died at age 15 of leukemia that the Church is preparing to proclaim “patron of the Internet”

Carlo Acutis is blessed. And the boy 15enne, interrupted by the fulminant leukemia in 2006, it could be proclaimed shortly by the Catholic Church further “Internet pattern” for his passion for information technology. French Pope the cardinal delegate Agostino Vallini, papal legate of the basilicas of San Francesco and Santa Maria degli Angeli, to preside over the beatification of Acutis celebrated in Assisi, where his remains have been exhibited since 2019. Carlo’s parents also attended the ceremony, Andrea he pointed Antonia salzano. the miracle attributed to the intercession of the young man refers to the sudden and inexplicable healing, which occurred in 2013, of a brazilian boy suffering from a congenital malformation to the pancreas. But it was the whole process of the cause that was very fast considering that the beatification of the child occurs just 14 years after his death.

A life out of the ordinary for a young man considered an information technology genius. But with a deeply ingrained faith, even despite the suffering caused by the illness that quickly led to his death. He often repeated: “The Eucharist is my way to heaven.” Carlo was born in London the May 3, 1991, where her parents were on business but lived their childhood in Milan. At age 7 he asked for and was able to receive the First Communion thanks to special permission. His days were always marked by the mass and the rosary. He developed a great love for the saints and for the Eucharist, to the point of mounting an exhibition on Eucharistic miracles, still online, which was unexpectedly successful, even abroad. Thanks to his Christian testimony, even the servant Acutis, a Hindu of the Brahmin priestly caste, decided to be baptized. Carlo died on October 12, 2006 nell ‘San Gerardo Hospital of Monza. Parents recall that a few days before being hospitalized, while keeping him company in the bedroom, they had heard their son say: “I offer all the suffering that I will have to suffer the Lord for the Pope and for the Church, so as not to go to Purgatory and go directly to heaven. And to the doctors who treated him, despite the severe pain caused by the disease, he repeated: “There are people who suffer much more than me.”

The young man loved to repeat that “criticizing the Church is also criticizing oneself.” Words that have become very current in light of recent financial scandals that literally overwhelmed the Secretary of State. “In his life, – writes the postulator for the cause of beatification, Nicola Gori, a journalist from The Roman Osservatore – I had met many people who did not believe in Hell and Purgatory. He once had an argument with a priest who denied the existence of Purgatory and Hell. However, the boy had great reverence and respect for the priests, whom he always honored even though they sometimes did not set a good example. His maturity in the field of faith stood out in the eyes of those who knew him”.

Gori, in Carlo’s biography, A computer genius in the sky (Libreria Editrice Vaticana), notes: “It is truly amazing how the fame and knowledge of this child have spread so quickly. Just think about him hundreds of graces and favors received through her intercession. And without anyone having done much dissemination, but spontaneously. On the other hand, it could not be otherwise, given that the field in which Carlo stood out was precisely information technology. Many of his colleagues come into contact with him for the first time on the Internet, then they are fascinated and want to know more. From a first meeting, we began to discover his message and his life. There are many, and not only young people, who are amazed at this apostle who does not leave anyone indifferent. His example attracts us and invites us to change our behavior and reflect ”.

In his apostolic exhortation Christ is aliveFrancis points to him as a model for young people around the world: “It is true – writes the Pope – that the digital world can expose you to the risk of shutting yourself up, isolation or empty pleasure. But do not forget that there are young people who are creative and sometimes brilliant in these areas as well. This is the case with the venerable young Carlo Acutis. I knew very well that these mechanisms of communication, advertising and social networks can help us to become sleeping subjects, addicted to consumption and the news we can buy, obsessed with free time, closed in negativity. He thought knew how to use new communication techniques to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values ​​and beauty. He did not fall into the trap. He saw that many young people, although they look different, actually end up being the same as others, running after what the powerful impose on them through the mechanisms of consumption and stunning. In this way, they do not allow the gifts that the Lord has given them to flourish, they do not offer to this world those unique and personal abilities that God has sown in everyone. So, Carlo said, it happens that ‘all are born as originals, but many die as photocopies‘. Don’t let this happen to you. “

Twitter: @FrancescoGrana