DNA
ROME: A teenager who died of leukaemia in 2006 became the first Catholic saint of the millennial generation on Sunday, in a Vatican ceremony led by Pope Leo and attended by thousands of young worshippers from dozens of countries.
Carlo Acutis, a British-born Italian boy who died aged 15, learned computer code to build websites to spread his faith. His story has drawn wide attention from Catholic youth, and he is now at the same level as Mother Teresa and Francis of Assisi.
Leo, the first US pontiff, canonised Acutis on Sunday along with Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young Italian man who was known for helping those in need and died of polio in the 1920s.
In impromptu remarks to crowds in St. Peter’s Square at the opening of the event, Leo said Acutis and Frassati were examples of holiness and of helping those in need. “All of you, all of us together, are called to be saints,” the pontiff told the young crowd, which had spilt out of the square down the main boulevard into the Vatican from Rome.
Acutis’ canonisation had been hotly anticipated by many Catholic youths for months. It was originally set for April but was postponed after the death of Pope Francis.
Sunday’s event is the first time that Leo, elected pope by the world’s cardinals in May, has presided over such a ceremony.
Antonio D’Averio, 24, who was at the ceremony, called the canonisation “a hand extended by the Church toward us young people.” D’Averio said he was a computer programmer and identified especially with Acutis’ story.
“He too was passionate about computer science,” said the young man. “For a saint, it’s certainly something new. It’s also something that, in my opinion, was needed.”
