The LuLac Edition #5, 118, May 28th, 2024

 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

Our “Maybe I’m Amazed” logo.

TEENAGE MILLENNIAL SAINT EDITION

CARLO ACUTIS (Photo: Catholic News Agency)

 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……but not really that in today’s Catholicism saints aren’t prominently celebrated the way they used to be. With churches closing and names being changed, trying to keep with getting to a Mass is sometimes an uneven religious endeavor. That’s why whenever the Vatican announces sainthood, it comes as a refreshing reminder of the faith.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..then that Pope Francis cleared the way for an Italian teenager to become the first millennial saint by attributing a second miracle to him. A teenager a saint? Usually we think of a young saint as one who gave their life for the faith. Or as an elder who had some type of religious track record.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that the newest saint is a computer whiz named , Carlo Acutis.  He was dubbed the patron saint of the internet among Roman Catholics because of his computer skills, which he used to share his faith. He died of leukemia in 2006 when he was just 15.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that he was grounded in faith right from the start and at the age of 7 he began attending daily mass. His faith inspired his mother to rejoin the church she had left years before.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that Carlo was self-taught on the computer and used his skills not for entertainment but for good.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that he used his skills to archive miracles on the internet. The New York Times reported that people from all over the world had told her about medical miracles, including cures for infertility and cancer, that happened after they prayed to her son.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that his journey to canonization began in 2020, after the Diocese of Assisi, where his family owned property, petitioned the Vatican to recognize him as a saint.  They felt that their young was the direct opposite to the dark web.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that in 2020 Pope Francis attributed the healing of a boy with a malformed pancreas to Carlo after the child came into contact with one of his shirts. Carlo was the first millennial to be “beatified,” or blessed by the church, another step on the path to sainthood. Although it was never mentioned what the connection to the shirt was, the miraculous healing contributed to Acutis’ beatification and eventual canonization.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that the second miracle involved the recovery of a Costa Rican university student who suffered severe head trauma after falling off her bicycle in Florence. The woman needed major brain surgery, and doctors warned survival rates were low. The woman’s mother traveled to Assisi to pray for her daughter at Carlo’s tomb at the Sanctuary of the Renunciation and ask for Carlo’s intercession.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that this announcement advising others that Carlo used the internet and his computer skills to spread his faith, offering the Catholic Church an opportunity to show a more positive side to social media. This may also help the church connect with young Catholics, many of whom have become increasingly disengaged, according to Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….that this recognition of a 15 year old will surely spawn debate as to the validity of the claim. However the fact that the Church has documented these claims, is backing them and at one point celebrating them later this year gives young people of faith an anchor to become more active members of a church that has been in transition since the priesthood scandals.  (New York Times,  LuLac, University of Notre Dame)