Blessed Carlo Acutis’ 30th birthday celebrated by parishes across world

By Courtney Mares for CNA

May 3, 2021 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

Venerable Carlo Acutis. / carloacutis.com.

Rome, Italy, May 3, 2021 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

Catholic parishes across Italy and as far away as the Philippines celebrated what would have been the 30th birthday of Blessed Carlo Acutis on Monday.

Acutis, who was born on May 3, 1991, became the first millennial to be beatified by Catholic Church in October 2020. The live stream of his beatification Mass in Assisi went viral, with hundreds of thousands of people watching online.

The Diocese of Assisi celebrated the date with a live-stream prayer and reflection at the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis with Fr. Carlos Ferriera, rector of the Sanctuary of the Spoliation, where the Blessed is buried, followed by a rosary and Mass offered by Bishop Domenico Sorrentino.

“Today for those who love Blessed Carlo there is the memory of his earthly birthday, but as you know, for the blessed and saints, the true birthday that the Church celebrates is that of death, so his feast will be in October,” Sorrentino said at the Mass.

“But it is also nice to be able to participate in the Eucharist on this day with him, as he would have celebrated his birthday on earth, surely with the Lord, definitely Eucharist, therefore it is nice to be together with him and to experience the Eucharist.”

Young people offered birthday wishes in a collaborative video message posted on Facebook by the Friends of Carlo Acutis Association.

“Ciao, Carlo, I wish you a very happy birthday. I am grateful from my heart for how you helped me to find the salvation of my life and my faith,” a girl said at the start of the video.

The National Thanksgiving Mass for Blessed Carlo Acutis’ 30th Birthday at the Chapel of St. Joseph in Bulacan province, the Philippines. / Screenshot
The National Thanksgiving Mass for Blessed Carlo Acutis’ 30th Birthday at the Chapel of St. Joseph in Bulacan province, the Philippines. / Screenshot

A procession took place in the Philippines with a statue of Carlo Acutis as part of the “National Thanksgiving Mass for Blessed Carlo Acutis’ 30th Birthday” at the Chapel of St. Joseph in Bulacan province, with more than 36,000 viewers tuning in to the live stream.

Parishes in Naples, Salerno, Ferentino, Foggia, Salerno, and other parts of Italy are dedicating the day to prayer with relics of Carlo Acutis, as well as Masses, Eucharistic adoration, extra hours of confession, and the rosary.

The archdiocese of Pisa marked the Blessed’s birthday with three days of prayer leading up to May 3 at the Madonna dell’Acqua parish in Cascina, which also hosted a Mass for children and families on Monday night.

The southern Italian diocese of Cassano all’Jonio hosted a “Eucharistic Week with Blessed Carlo Acutis” at the parish of Fr. Michele Munno, who has written several devotionals dedicated to Acutis.

As part of its Eucharistic Week, San Vincenzo Ferrer parish temporarily hosted a wooden statue of Acutis that was recently blessed by Pope Francis.

A church in Roncà, outside of Verona, is dedicating a month of prayer for young people, families, and the community through Carlo’s intercession with special evening Masses May 4-27.

A new Catholic youth center named after Carlo Acutis opened in Reggio Calabria at the Holy Family parish in Palmi.

The oratory, which includes a soccer field, was inaugurated with a ribbon-cutting and blessing by Bishop Francesco Milito, who quoted St. John Bosco in his speech.

“In an oratory, three things can never be lacking: the sports field, the theater, and the church,” he said.

Antonia Salzano, the mother of Carlo Acutis, donated a relic of a lock of her son’s hair to the Catholic youth center.

“Carlo entrusted himself to the Eucharist, which he called ‘my highway to heaven,’ and by eating Christ he fed on the source of love. Carlo went to Mass, adoration, and prayed the holy rosary every day. Carlo was beatified thanks to the Eucharist, which each of us has at hand,” she said in a video message sent to the oratory.

“Carlo was quite bad at football, but he loved being with friends,” she added.

Blessed Carlo Acutis was a young Catholic from Italy with a passionate devotion to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and an aptitude for computer programming.

From the ages of 12 to 14, he designed a website cataloging Eucharistic miracles that have occurred around the world, which he launched in 2005. He died of leukemia a year later at the age of 15, offering his suffering for the pope and the Church.

To mark his 30th birthday, priests and religious around Italy recorded a video message reflecting on what the witness of Carlo has meant to their parishes.

Pope Francis alluded to Carlo Acutis in a message to altar servers gathered at a weekend event in Fatima, Portugal, which took its theme from one of the young Blessed’s favorite quotes: “All are born as originals, but many die as photocopies.”

“You have to find out who you are and develop your personal way of being holy, regardless of what others say and think. To make yourself holy is to become more fully yourself, the one God wanted to dream and create, not a photocopy. Your life must be a prophetic stimulus that inspires others, that leaves a mark on this world, that unique mark that only you can leave,” Pope Francis said, according to Vatican News.

If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

About Catholic News Agency 12605 Articles
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

Related Articles

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope Francis: Solutions to loss of faith ‘come from the tabernacle, not the computer’

April 28, 2023 Catholic News Agency 4
Pope Francis speaks to bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians, and pastoral workers in St. Stephen’s Co-Cathedral in Budapest, Hungary, April 28, 2023. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 28, 2023 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Friday encouraged clergy and others discouraged by a shortage of priests and ebbing faith in the West to pray for God’s help, saying the solutions will “come from the tabernacle and not the computer.”

“I want to assure you that good pastoral ministry is possible if we are able to live as the Lord has commanded us, in the love that is the gift of his Spirit,” the pope said, speaking to an audience of approximately 1,000 Hungarian priests, seminarians, and pastoral workers gathered in St. Stephen’s Co-Cathedral in Budapest.

The crowd listens to a speech by Pope Francis to bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians, and pastoral workers in St. Stephen's Co-Cathedral in Budapest, Hungary, April 28, 2023. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The crowd listens to a speech by Pope Francis to bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians, and pastoral workers in St. Stephen’s Co-Cathedral in Budapest, Hungary, April 28, 2023. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

“If we grow distant from one another, or divided, if we become hardened in our ways of thinking and our different groups, then we will not bear fruit,” he warned. “It is sad when we become divided, because, instead of playing as a team, we start playing the game of the enemy: bishops not communicating with each other, the old versus the young, diocesan priests versus religious, priests versus laity, Latins versus Greeks.”

Such divisions lead to polarization along entrenched ideological lines, the Holy Father said. “No! Always remember that our first pastoral priority is to bear witness to communion, for God is communion and he is present wherever there is fraternal charity,” he said.

Speaking on Friday afternoon on the first day of his three-day visit to Hungary’s historic capital, Pope Francis acknowledged the many reasons for Christians to feel disheartened today, including the rise of secularism and a corresponding decline of faith in the West.

But the pope stressed that Christians “must always be on guard” not to yield to the temptation to become defeatists “who insist that all is lost, that we have lost the values of bygone days and have no idea where we are headed.”

There is another, equally dangerous temptation, he said: “a comfortable conformism that would have us think that everything is basically fine, the world has changed and we must simply adapt.”

To combat “bleak defeatism and a worldly conformism,” Pope Francis said, “the Gospel gives us new eyes to see” as well as discernment that enables us to “approach our own time with openness, but also with a prophetic spirit.” He added that we are called to “prophetic receptivity.”

The crowd listens to a speech by Pope Francis to bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians, and pastoral workers in St. Stephen's Co-Cathedral in Budapest, Hungary, April 28, 2023. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The crowd listens to a speech by Pope Francis to bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians, and pastoral workers in St. Stephen’s Co-Cathedral in Budapest, Hungary, April 28, 2023. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

“Prophetic receptivity is about learning how to recognize the signs of God in the world around us, including places and situations that, while not explicitly Christian, challenge us and call for a response,” the Holy Father said. “At the same time, it is about seeing all things in the light of the Gospel without yielding to worldliness, as heralds and witnesses of the Christian faith.”

Pope Francis said people can accomplish this by “bringing the Lord’s consolation to situations of pain and poverty in our world, being close to persecuted Christians, to migrants seeking hospitality, to people of other ethnic groups and to anyone in need.”

The Church must aspire to be “capable of mutual listening, dialogue, and care for the most vulnerable” and “welcoming to all and courageous in bringing the prophetic message of the Gospel to everyone,” the Holy Father said.

“Christ is our future, for he is the one who guides all history. Your confessors of the faith were firmly convinced of this: the many bishops, priests, religious women and men martyred during the communist persecution. They testify to the unwavering faith of Hungarians,” Pope Francis said.

“Our lives, for all their frailty, are held firmly in his hands. If ever we forget this, we, clergy and laity alike, will end up seeking human ways and means to defend ourselves from the world, either withdrawing into our comfortable and tranquil religious oases, or else running after the shifting winds of worldliness. In both cases, our Christianity will lose its vigor, and we will cease to be the salt of the earth.”

[…]

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*