I recently discovered that many Italians were carrying the image of Carlo Acutis in their wallet way before the 15-year-old boy was made a saint.
It’s amazing how catholics tend to “feel” the need for saints and sainthood. Italians usually carry the image of popular capuchin Padre Pio or some other old-looking, serious saint with a long beard and brown robe in their wallets, or maybe stuck on their car window for protection and blessing. I don’t know quite why, but I have always looked at these images in awe – and with some fear.
As a believer, I know saints are good and exist as intermediaries between us and God. But seeing them always depicted as old, or at least grown-up, has always made me uneasy.
Perhaps the image of our new saint, the 15-year-old Carlo Acutis, will ease that religious tension and allow me to pray to him in a more natural way, without having the feeling of being judged or the fear of punishment, which I know doesn’t sound so catholic and is maybe a bit more protestant.
The picture of Acutis is more akin to an image you’d find on a social network profile: nice curly hair, wearing a simple T-shirt and a backpack on his shoulders. He also had a grin on his face.
He looked friendly and cheerful, like the teenager next door who plays soccer or volleyball in the courtyard with his friends after school.
So it came as no surprise to me when I heard the news that the Pope had initiated the process of sanctification of Acutis, who died of a severe form of leukaemia.
Before his cruel death, Acutis miraculously cured two other children – a “double miracle” – which sets him on the path to becoming the Catholic church’s first millennial saint.
Reading his biography, it struck me what a simple, charming teenager he was. He loved nature, was a climate change activist and lover of animals. He used to go snorkeling to gather rubbish from the seabed, and occasionally brought back home stray dogs and cats.
He came from a wealthy family, but that did not stop him from tapping into the spirituality of human existence. Saint Francis famously had rich parents and renounced all wealth, even his lavish clothes, to follow the path of poverty. In a way, Acutis also went beyond materialism and the shiny modern trappings of today’s world.
But above all, Acutis was a tech master. As all millennials born during the boom of the internet era, he liked to use social networks and the web to spread the word of God. He is a saint 2.0.
I think Acutis will make catholicism more appealing to many millennials who are not involved in religion, many of whom see catholicism as something totally off.
The church is screaming for a makeover, a revival, and more millennial saints like Acutis are just what it needs.
There have been several children in the past who have been turned into saints, like Santa Maria Goretti, raped and killed by her own cousin in a town south of Rome – but that was more than a century ago, and sadly very few people know her terrible story.
Sometimes when I go to church or watch religious programmes on TV, I can’t help but think how old-fashioned catholic rituals are. Priests celebrating mass are often scary. They’re all old and the wording they use is totally arcane. I wonder if one day we will have young priests and a more direct, modern language for mass and prayers. Hopefully Acutis is just the first step to all that.
Silvia Marchetti is a freelance journalist based in Rome
