Carlo Acutis will soon be sainted. During the audience granted to Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorized the promulgation, among others, of the decrees relating to the miracle attributed to his intercession, concerning the miraculous healing of Matheus, a Brazilian child of six-year-old suffering from annular pancreas, a rare congenital anomaly of the pancreas highlighted by a clinical examination in 2012, which could only be corrected with surgery.
Carlo Acutis is particularly venerated in Taranto which, we remember, also preserves a relic of him, kept in the chapel of the Poggio Galeso seminary.
When he died on 12 October 2006, Carlo, who was born in London on 3 May 1991, was only fifteen years old. A fulminant leukemia had taken him away in three days. But he felt it: two months earlier he had recorded a video in which, smiling, he said he was ready and asked to be buried in Assisi. Carlo Acutis was proclaimed blessed just under four years ago and will now be a saint, the first saint of millennials and of the Internet. Already announced for some time now in the Vatican as the future patron of the Internet, or at least co-patron given that a saint protector already exists, albeit much less updated: the great Isidore of Seville.
There pilgrimage
We remember that about a year ago, in February 2023, the Church of Taranto dedicated a week to pilgrimage in the parishes of the diocese of the relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis. An event that culminated with a large demonstration that took place in the Gran Madre di Dio Co-Cathedral. A final prayer vigil was promoted by the diocesan youth ministry office.
More than 700 students had participated in the morning meetings in schools with Father Carlos Acácio Gonçalves Ferreira, rector of the Sanctuary of the Emptying of Assisi, who collected the story and testimony of this blessed young man. Accompanied on this tour by the rector of the seminary, Don Francesco Maranò and by the vice-rector Don Francesco Manisi, who had accompanied him to the schools. Many then took part in the evening meetings, every day in a different vicarage.
The relic, a lock of Carlo’s hair, remained in Taranto, inside the chapel of the minor seminary of Poggio Galeso, where every 12th of the month, throughout 2023, a moment of community prayer was organised. But where there are still many who retreat in prayer. “I am moved to see the response of the diocese of Taranto. Lots of people every day. People thirsty for listening and prayer and many children not enrolled in religious lessons participated in the schools. It is an immense sign of how much Blessed Carlo Acutis touches hearts and speaks to the youngest.” This was Father Gonçalves Ferreira’s comment.
We will return again to the very young saint and his “extraordinary” meeting with Taranto, meanwhile we remember that Don Giovanni Merlini, general moderator of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, will soon become a saint, thanks to the recognition of the miracle. Born in Spoleto on 28 August 1795, he died in Rome on 12 January 1873. In the same audience, the Holy Father authorized the decrees regarding the heroic virtues of the scientist and politician Enrico Medi, who thus became Venerable.
The other decrees authorized by the Pope
The other decrees authorized by the Pope are those relating to the martyrdom of the servant of God Stanislaus Kostka Streich, diocesan priest, born on 27 August 1902 in Bydgoszcz (Poland) and killed out of hatred for the faith on 27 February 1938; the martyrdom of the servant of God Maria Maddalena Bódi, laywoman, born on 8 August 1921 in Szgliget (Hungary) and killed out of hatred for the faith on 23 March 1945. The heroic virtues of the servant of God Guglielmo Gattiani (born: Oscar) were proclaimed , professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, born on 11 November 1914 in Badi, a hamlet of the municipality of Castel di Casio (Bologna) and died in Faenza on 15 December 1999. The heroic virtues of the servant of God Ismaele Molinero Novillo, called Ismael de Tomelloso, layman; born on 1 May 1917 in Tomelloso (Spain) and died in Zaragoza (Spain) on 5 May 1938.
