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ASISI, Italy (Catholic News Agency via CBCP News) – With the beatification of Carlo Acutis in Assisi on Saturday, the Catholic Church now has its first “Blessed” who loved Super Mario, Pokémon and, above all, the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. .
“To always be united to Jesus, this is my life program.” Carlo Acutis wrote at the age of seven.
The young Italian computer genius, who died of leukemia at the age of 15 offering his suffering for the Pope and the Church, was beatified on October 10 at a mass in the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Born in 1991, Acutis is the first millennium to be beatified by the Catholic Church. The teenager who had an aptitude for computer programming is now one step away from canonization.
“Since I was a child… I had my eyes fixed on Jesus. The love of the Eucharist was the foundation that kept his relationship with God alive. He often said ‘The Eucharist is my way to heaven,’ Cardinal Agostino Vallini said in his beatification homily.
“Carlo felt a great need to help people discover that God is close to us and that it is beautiful to be with him to enjoy his friendship and his grace,” said Vallini.
During the beatification mass, Acutis’ parents processed behind a relic of their son’s heart that was placed near the altar. An apostolic letter from Pope Francis was read aloud in which the Pope declared that Carlo Acutis’s feast will take place every year on October 12, the anniversary of his death in Milan in 2006.
The masked pilgrims dispersed in front of the Basilica of San Francisco and through the different squares of Assisi to see the Mass on giant screens, since only a limited number of people were allowed to enter.
The beatification of Acutis attracted some 3,000 people to Assisi, including people who knew Acutis personally and many other young people inspired by his testimony.
Mattia Pastorelli, 28, was a childhood friend of Acutis, who met him when they were both around five years old. Remember to play video games, including Halo, with Carlo. (Acutis’s mother also told CNA that Super Mario and Pokémon were Carlo’s favorites.)
“Having a friend who is about to become a saint is a very strange emotion,” Pastorelli told CNA on October 10. “I knew he was different from the others, but now I realize how special he was.”
“I watched him while programming websites… He was really an incredible talent,” she added.
In his homily, Cardinal Vallini, pontifical legate of the Basilica of Saint Francis, hailed Acutis as a model of how young people can use technology at the service of the Gospel to “reach as many people as possible and help them to know the beauty of friendship with the Lord. “
For Carlo, Jesus was “the strength of his life and the purpose of everything he did,” the cardinal said.
“I was convinced that to love people and do good to them it is necessary to draw energy from the Lord. In this spirit, he was very dedicated to Our Lady, ”he added.
“His ardent desire was also to attract the greatest number of people to Jesus, making himself a herald of the Gospel above all with the example of life.”
At a young age, Acutis taught himself how to code and went on to create websites that catalog the world’s Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions.
“The Church rejoices, because in this very young blessed the Lord’s words are fulfilled: ‘I have chosen you and I have appointed you to go and bear much fruit.’ And Carlo ‘went’ and brought the fruit of holiness, showing it as a goal available to all and not as something abstract and reserved for a few ”, said the cardinal.
“He was an ordinary boy, simple, spontaneous, friendly… he loved nature and animals, he played soccer, he had many friends his age, he was attracted to modern means of social communication, passionate about computers and self-taught. , built websites to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values and beauty, ”he said.
Assisi is celebrating the beatification of Carlo Acutis with more than two weeks of liturgies and events from October 1-17. During this time, images of a young Acutis standing with a giant monstrance containing the Eucharist can be seen in front of churches throughout the city of St. Francis and St. Clare.
People lined up to pray at the tomb of Carlo Acutis, located in the Sanctuary of the Dispossession of Assisi in the Church of Santa María la Mayor. The church extended its hours until midnight throughout the beatification weekend to allow as many people as possible to worship Acutis, with social distancing measures in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Fr.Boniface López, a church-based Capuchin Franciscan, told CNA that he noticed that many people who visited Acutis’s tomb also took advantage of the opportunity to confess, which is offered in many languages throughout the 17 days that the Acutis body is visible for venation.
“Many people come to see Carlo to ask for his blessing… also many young people; They come to confession, they come because they want to change their life and they want to get closer to God and really experience God ”, p. Lopez said.
At a youth vigil the night before the beatification, pilgrims gathered outside the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels of Assisi as priests heard confessions inside.
The churches of Assisi also offered additional hours of Eucharistic Adoration to mark the beatification of Acutis.
López said that he had also met many nuns and priests who were going on pilgrimage to see Actutis. “Religious come here to ask for his blessing to help them cultivate a greater love for the Eucharist.”
As Acutis once said: “When we look at the sun we get tan … but when we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist we become saints.”
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