ROME — Pope Francis has recognized miracles attributed to Father Carlo Acutis, paving the way for him to become the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint.
Are known Fondly known as the “Patron Saint of the Internet,” Carlo was born on May 3, 1991 in London, England, grew up in Milan, and died on October 12, 2006 in Monza, Italy, succumbing to leukemia at the age of 15.
Diagnosed with leukemia in 2006, Carlo made a video saying he was ready to die with a smile on his face, and asking to be buried in Assisi, the hometown of St. Francis. The boy’s wish was granted, and when he died shortly thereafter, his body was buried there.
In 2020, Pope Francis visited Assisi for the beatification ceremony that put Carlo on the path to sainthood.
Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian boy who died of leukemia in 2006, lies in state before his beatification by Cardinal Agostino Vallini in Assisi, Italy, on October 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
To proceed with beatification, the Catholic Church requires, among other requirements, a authenticated miracle attributed to the intercession of the beatified individual, at which point the church recognizes the person as a saint.
On Thursday, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Canonizations, met with Pope Francis. approved The miracle necessary for the canonization of the young Carlo.
A Costa Rican woman named Liliana visited Assisi in 2022 and prayed at the tomb of St. Charles for her daughter Valeria.
Valeria fell off her bike in Florence, where she was attending university, suffering from severe head injuries in the fall that required open skull surgery and removal of her right occipital bone to relieve pressure on her brain.
Doctors said the young woman’s chances of survival were extremely slim.
On July 8, the same day that Liliana made a pilgrimage to St. Carlo’s tomb in Assisi, the hospital announced that Valeria had begun breathing on her own. The next day, she began to move and speak.
Ten days later, a CAT scan showed that Valeria’s bleeding had completely cleared, and the following month she was transferred to rehabilitation therapy.
On September 2, Valeria and Liliana made a pilgrimage together to Assisi to give thanks to Father Carlo for his intercession.
In a post-Synodal Apostolic Letter Recommendation Christ is Alive In his homily for young people, “Christ is Alive,” Pope Francis chose Carlo Acutis as a model of how to use the Internet and communication media for good.
Francis writes that while the digital world can put people at risk of self-absorption, isolation and empty pleasures, it can also unlock the creativity and genius of some young people, like Carlo Acutis, who uses media.
“Carlo was well aware that all means of communication, advertising and social networking can be used to deceive us, to make us addicted to consumerism, to make us buy the latest thing on the market, to become obsessed with our free time and get caught up in negativity,” Pope Francis continued.
“But he knew how to use new communication technologies to spread the gospel and to communicate values and beauty,” he said.
In a papal decree issued on Thursday, Pope Francis said he would convene a Congregation of Cardinals to consider the canonization of Father Carlo Acutis.
