Carlo Acutis, the student who died at just 15 years old and beatified by Pope Francis on 10 October 2020, will be made a saint. During the audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorized the Dicastery to promulgate the Decree regarding the miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Acutis, a lay faithful.
The Church of Assisi celebrates the Pope's announcement: Acutis, killed by a fulminant leukemia on 12 October 2006 in Monza, was buried, as he had expressly requested, in the cemetery of Assisi, where he remained until his transfer to the Sanctuary of Spogliazione, in the same city, where he has been since 6 April 2019. And the beatification ceremony took place in Assisi on 10 October 2020, presided over by Cardinal Agostino Vallini representing the Pope.
«Charles will be proclaimed a saint, thus moving from the local cult which is typical of the status of blessed, to the universal cult which characterizes canonized saints» writes the bishop of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino and of Foligno, mons. Domenico Sorrentino. «The Church of Assisi is celebrating. We express with exultation our joy in union with the family, especially father Andrea and mother Antonia, and all Carlo's devotees scattered around the world."
Carlo Acutis, an IT genius, will be the first saint of millennials and of the Internet, already announced for some time in the Vatican as the future patron of the Internet. His life was «a continuous prayer», recalls his mother Antonia Salzano: «A normal boy who opened his heart to Christ. And he made his normality holy,” he adds. The Acutis family divides their time between Milan, where they manage a company, and Assisi, where the boy asked to be buried, and was then moved to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore after being proclaimed venerable. His tomb, with his body visible, is visited by thousands of pilgrims every year.
Antonia Salzano, originally from Rome, is 58 years old and her husband, from Turin, is 60. Carlo - she recalls - was born by chance in London where the family was for work reasons. Carlo Acutis has a brother and a sister both born after his death. «A miracle that he announced to me in a dream», says the mother. «There is great emotion - says the woman again after the Pope's announcement - also because usually when saints are proclaimed the parents are already deceased. A joy that we share with all those in the world who pray to Charles every day, who write to us about him and tell us about his miracles."
For Antonia Salzano her son is a "boy who reminds us of the essentiality of faith". «He made his normality holy - he added - because he did everything with Jesus: when he went to play football with friends or committed himself to helping the elderly and the homeless in the streets of Milan. His was a sort of domestic Caritas. Then there was his activity as a catechist which he carried out with passion, a constant work to spread the word of the Lord."
Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, founder of the Consolata Missions, will also be sainted.
(Unioneonline/D)
