By Joe Sosnowsky
In many ways, Blessed Carlo Acutis was a typical young boy: friendly, active in sports, and good student with an aptitude for computers.
At the same time, he was an extraordinary young boy. He was always very clear on the plan for his life. “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan,” he wrote after receiving his First Holy Communion.
The Italian teen was set to be canonized April 27; it was delayed due to the death of Pope Francis.
A look at his short life shows a young man called to the Eucharist and sharing that devotion through modern technology.
Blessed Carlo developed a deep devotion to the Eucharist when he was young. As soon as he learned the Eucharist was the Body and Blood of Jesus, he wanted to receive Holy Communion. He asked, and was permitted, to receive his First Holy Communion at age 7. He attended daily Mass and stayed for Eucharistic Adoration.
“If we go out in the sun, we get a tan … but when we get in front of Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints,” he wrote. “We are more fortunate than those who lived two thousand years ago … because we have God really and substantially present with us always. It’s enough to visit the nearest church!”
At 11, he was asked to be an assistant catechist. He soon realized most students did not truly understand the Eucharist. He started investigating Eucharistic miracles as a way of educating young people. He created a website to catalogue and prepare panels for all the approved miracles. These panels form the Eucharistic Miracles exhibits that have been on display around the world.
On Oct. 1, 2006, he was running a slight fever. His mother kept him home and called their pediatrician, who prescribed a simple antibiotic. His condition worsened, and he was taken to the hospital. He was eventually diagnosed with M3 acute leukemia. His condition dramatically worsened, and on Oct. 11, he fell into a coma. He died the next day at age 15.
The cause for his canonization was opened, and in November 2016, he was declared a Servant of God.
The first miracle officially attributed to Blessed Carlo occurred in 2013. A 4-year-old boy in Brazil, Matheus, was born with a malformed pancreas. Dangerously weak and malnourished, he was expected to die within a year. His mother started a novena to Carlo Acutis, and on Oct. 12 (the anniversary of the Italian teen’s death), his relic was displayed for veneration. Matheus leapt out of his grandfather’s lap, went up to the relic, kissed it and said a prayer. A subsequent ultrasound exam revealed that his pancreas had been fully healed.
With the approval of that miracle, Carlo was beatified in 2020.
The second miracle attributed to Blessed Carlo was in 2022. A 21-year-old girl, Valeria, suffered a severe head injury after falling off her bicycle in Italy. She was near death. Valeria’s mother went to Assisi to pray at Blessed Carlo Acutis’ tomb. On that same day, Valeria began to breathe on her own. Subsequent tests showed that the hemorrhage in her brain had completely disappeared.
It was this second miracle that cleared the way for Blessed Carlo’s canonization.
I invite those wanting to go deeper into the life of this extraordinary young man to an upcoming presentation being hosted by Saint John Neumann Parish, North Cape May. I will be giving a talk at 9:45 a.m. on April 28. It will be repeated at 5 p.m. the same day. The parish campus is located at 680 Town Bank Road. I also recommend a book written by his mother, Antonia, titled, “My Son Carlo.”
Joe Sosnowsky is a longtime educator and parishioner of Saint Damien Parish, Ocean City.
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