Carlo Acutis to be canonizedCarlo Acutis. To live as an original, so as not to die as a photocopy."A great and uncontainable joy". The mother of Carlo Acutis overflowed with emotion when she heard the news that Pope Francis, during the Ordinary Public Consistory The Pope had decided that his son would be canonized during the Jubilee of 2025 on a date yet to be determined.
In conversation with Omnes, Antonia Salzano explains that this news was awaited with anxiety and concern: "Charles has many devotees scattered all over the world and the canonization will now allow the cult to be universal: this will also give us the possibility to carry out other initiatives in honor of Charles such as, for example, the construction of a church or the dedication of some chapels".
Love without limits
The young man who would soon be elevated to the honors of the altars died at the age of 15 from fulminant leukemia. In the three days of agony that preceded his death, Charles declared to offer his painful sufferings for the Pope and the Church. Great was his love for the EucharistHe repeatedly called her "my highway to Heaven", and for Our Lady: a boundless love that led him to attend daily Mass and to pray the Holy Rosary.
Like many boys his age, he was passionate about web design. He is still famous for his online exhibition on the Eucharistic miracles, which has garnered millions of hits around the world, to the point that some hope he could be designated patron saint of the Internet.
Attention to the little ones
"Carlo is a great sign of hope for young people," his mother explains, "because he has lived what young people live: the joys, the fears, the hopes. And Carlo tells them: 'if I have succeeded, you can too'".
She is really sure that her son is a spur on the difficult but fascinating path to holiness, because Carlo "transmits values that can be shared by everyone, even by believers and non-believers. He has really looked very intensely at the existential peripheries that Pope Francis is so fond of today".
In Milan, recalls Antonia, "Carlo looked after the cloisters, he had a special care for the immigrants, he befriended them: at his funeral, the church was full, crowded, with many of them. They were doormen, service men, caretakers: he had befriended them. For him, each person was a world, he made no distinctions. He had a smile and a good word for everyone".
Balm for a wounded world
The new saint with the contagious smile can be a balm for a world wounded by wars, divisions, hatred and misunderstandings. As his mother says: "He was used to building bridges. He welcomed everyone. These wars arise from rivalry, envy, the lust for possession and power. Carlo, on the other hand, was a child who would give up even a pair of shoes because he was aware that there are so many people starving in the world. He would tell me: 'Mom, a pair of shoes is enough for me, instead of spending money on new shoes, let's help the sick. Let's do a good deed.
To be essential
When Carlo was still very young, about six years old, he used to scold his younger cousins for always leaving the water tap running. Antonia still remembers: "He would tell them: 'don't waste water, it's a precious commodity and one day it will run out. Carlo already had these feelings in his heart, he was used to living the essential. Seeing this world in which in many nations there is opulence and waste, my son used to say that the Earth, in a way, is a spinning garbage can, and perhaps he was not wrong. When he went to the beach in the summer, his favorite game was to go out to sea with his boat and pick up the garbage that came to the surface at high tides."
Growing devotion
Devotion to Carlo is growing in the world every day. His mother does not hide the fact that "even now we struggle to keep up with all the reports that come in. Every day we receive news of possible miracles of healings and conversions. Those who don't know him, now, with the upcoming canonization, will have the opportunity to know more about him and pray to him."
Antonia then recalls the extraordinary exposition on the Eucharistic miracles that took place when he was teaching catechism and whose aim was to make Christ known and loved. It reached every continent. For example, in the United States alone it has been welcomed in 10,000 parishes. "Often Carlo," the woman adds, "marveled at the miles-long lines to attend a concert or a ball game, lines he didn't see in church. He disliked it so much that he would say: 'If people realized the importance of the Eucharist, the churches would be so full that people would no longer be able to enter.
Frequent confession
Carlo's love for the Eucharist led him to go to confession once a week. "Carlo," his mother explains, "tried, through constant and assiduous examinations of conscience, to remove from his soul all those burdens that prevented him from flying high. He wanted to be a saint, but he jokingly said that he did not want to be like St. Francis, whom he loved and considered too sublime a mystic to achieve it. The Lord, in his goodness, pleased him".
The two miracles
The first miracle related to Carlo's beatification, which took place in Assisi on October 10, 2020, concerns the healing of a Brazilian child suffering from a rare congenital anatomical anomaly of the pancreas. The second, which led to her sanctification, concerns a Costa Rican girl, a student in Italy, who underwent surgery for a head injury following an accident. When her daughter was struggling between life and death, the mother of this poor young woman went to pray at the tomb of Carlo, whose remains rest in the Sanctuary of Despojo in Assisi. "That woman knelt before my son's tomb," Antonia recalls with emotion, "and remained there all day: in the end she obtained this great grace. Many people in Costa Rica had also joined her prayers. Her faith was heroic.
Conversion instrument
The fact that Carlo will be canonized during the Great Jubilee of 2025 represents for Antonia a great opportunity for the whole Church: "My Carlo is an instrument of conversion. He can be a model for everyone, especially for young people. The Jubilee is a time of grace, a time in which the Lord calls us to change our lives and to adhere to the project of holiness that He has for each one of us". There is a phrase that the mother of this new saint likes to repeat and will never forget: "We are all born as originals, but many die as photocopies.
Two films about Carlo Acutis
On the occasion of the upcoming canonization of Carlo Acutis, Contractor+ makes available to its users the two films about "God's influencer" directed by José María Zavala: "El Cielo no puede esperar" and "El latido del Cielo".
In both tapes you can find various testimonies from friends and family members who talk about the young Acutis, his exposition of the Eucharistic miracles and the impact he has had on the lives of hundreds of people.
