Antonia Salzano told iNews that Acutis did not inherit his religious instincts from her or her husband.

"I was not an example of saintliness as a child - quite the opposite. When I got married it was the third mass I'd ever attended."

"I was evangelised by Carlo," she said.

The blessed boy

Salzano says he loved watching football and playing video games. And while he helped Milan's poor and needy, and built numerous websites for spreading religious teachings, her son always prioritised his faith.

She has also had first-hand experience of her son's miracles, she says.

One night, after several unsuccessful attempts to have another child, Salzano says her son appeared to her in a dream, telling her that she would become a mother again.

On the anniversary of Blessed Carolo's death in 2010, his 44-year old mother gave birth to twin daughters.

Life is eternal

Salzano says her son helped people concentrate on the transitory nature of life.

He noticed many struggling to understand that life is eternal.

"He said that death was the passage to real life and whoever is scared of death doesn't have faith."

Nor did he want to focus on his own illness and suffering.

"When the doctors asked him whether he was suffering, he said: ‘there are people in this world that suffer more than me'."

The young saint's example

Blessed Carlos's faith was obvious from an early age, his mother says.

He began attending daily Mass from the age of seven.

He limited himself to using his Playstation though to one hour a week as a form of spiritual discipline.

He loved visiting homeless people, to whom he gave his pocket money and donated food or sleeping bags.

He also designed websites for his parish and school, and a site cataloguing Eucharistic miracles from around the world.

That website is translated into nearly 20 languages.

After he died, a Vatican-sponsored photo exhibition on miracles drawn from his website traveled the world.

On 1 July 2024, Pope Francis presided at an Ordinary Consistory of Cardinals, which approved his canonisation.

Source

• inews

This was done after Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, met with Pope Francis during an audience on May 23.

The pope will soon convene a consistory, which will also address the canonisation of Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, a friend of Saint John Bosco and founder of the Consolata Missionaries; Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Institute of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family in Canada in the late 19th century; and Elena Guerra, founder of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit in 1882.

Carlo Acutis will thus be the first saint to have "owned a mobile phone and an email address," noted Father Will Conquer.

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He was beatified in Assisi, Italy on Saturday.

Acutis, who was only 15 when he died of leukemia, devoted his life to spreading the faith on the internet. He died in Milan in 2006.

"To be always united with Jesus, this is my life program," the young Acutis wrote at the age of seven.

He offered his suffering for the pope and the Church.

His beatification Mass at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was celebrated by Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the pontifical legate for the Basilica.

The young millennial's heart, which now serves as a relic, was placed near the altar of the church.

In his homily, Vallini praised Acutis for using the internet "in service of the Gospel, to reach as many people as possible."

"Since he was a child … he had his gaze turned to Jesus. Love for the Eucharist was the foundation that kept alive his relationship with God."

"He often said ‘The Eucharist is my highway to heaven."

"Carlo felt a strong 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," Vallini said.

One of the ways Acutis used his technology skills was to develop a website archiving Eucharistic miracles.

He was designated "Venerable" after Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to him involving healing a Brazilian boy who suffered a rare pancreatic disease.

Acutis's body, dressed in the casual clothes he wore in daily life, is currently displayed in a glass tomb in Assisi's Sanctuary of the Spoliation in the Church of St. Mary Major.

It will be on display until October 17 for veneration.

Another verified miracle attributed to the young computer whiz will be needed before Acutis becomes formally hailed as the "patron saint of the internet."

Pope Francis has issued an apostolic letter declaring October 12 as Acutis's feast day.

Source

• CNN Philippines
• Angelus News
• Image: Angelus News