Une Minute avec Marie
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Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian teenager who died of leukaemia, used his passion for computers to evangelize, was beatified October 10th in Assisi, Italy. The feast day of the new blessed is October 12th, the anniversary of his death in 2006.
Cardinal Agostino Vallini presided over the ceremony, reflecting that the beatification is “good news, a powerful proclamation that a youth of our times, someone like many of us, has been conquered by Christ and has become a radiant light for those who want to know him and follow his example.”
While few were allowed into the shrine, many others watched the beatification from screens set up in the plazas of Assisi. Among those present were Carlo’s parents, who in procession with a relic of their son’s heart.
Carlo was born in London on May 3, 1991, to Italian parents who moved the family to Milan when he was 3 months old. It was there that Carlo grew up, attending local schools and then a Jesuit high school. Devoted to Our Lady from a young age, Carlo made the effort to recite the Rosary daily and, after his first Communion at age seven, also strove to receive the Eucharist daily and to receive the sacrament of reconciliation weekly.
He showed that faith does not distance us from life, but rather deeply immerses us in it, indicating for us the concrete path to live the joy of the Gospel. It’s up to us to follow him, attracted by the fascinating experience of Blessed Carlo, so that our lives can shine with light and hope.