Blessed Carlo Acutis who died in 2006 at the age of 15.
A young girl prays before the image of Carlo Acutis in the Bronx, New York City on April 7, before a special ceremony in which a relic from Carlo’s heart was handed over to Cardinal Timothy Dolan by the Bishop of Assisi, Domenico Sorrentino. Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Bruno. His excellent work may be viewed here.
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” —John 6:51
“I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church.” —Blessed Carlo Acutis, who died at the age of 15 in 2006. The words cited were words he spoke in the final hours of his life, when he suffered great pain
“The Bishops of the United States are calling for a three-year grassroots revival of devotion and belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. They believe that God wants to see a movement of Catholics across the United States, healed, converted, formed, and unified by an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist — and sent out in mission “for the life of the world. These three years will culminate in the first National Eucharistic Congress in the United States in almost 50 years. Almost a hundred thousand Catholics will join together in Indianapolis for a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage toward the ‘source and summit’ of our Catholic faith.”—Statement of the US Bishops’ Conference found at https://eucharisticrevival.org/. The conference is launching a three-year preparation for a National Eucharistic Conference in 2025. Carlo Acutis with his great devotion to the Eucharist is part of this preparation.
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Letter #68, 2022, Wednesday, April 13: Blessed Carlo Acutis
A relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis — the first “millennial” to be beatified — has come to America.
The relic arrived last Thursday, April 7, in New York City.
The relic is from Carlo’s heart.
The relic was handed over a special ceremony at the end of a Mass in St. Rita’s Church in the Bronx on Thursday, April 7, by Italian Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino, the bishop of Assisi, to the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who received the relic on behalf of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference.
Carlo Acutis died of sudden onset leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15.
He was declared “Blessed” by the Church on October 10, 2020.
His body lies in Assisi, Italy, in a tomb next to the Chapel of the Renunciation, the place where St. Francis of Assisi stripped himself of all his clothes and worldly possessions to follow Christ in poverty and humility.
Bishop Sorrentino said that Carlo’s spirituality was focused on the Eucharist, and that he is an inspiration to many young people, because he was an “ordinary boy” of our time with an extraordinary love of Jesus Christ.
The pilgrimage of the relic from Carlo’s heart around the United States over the next year will hopefully prepare the way for a renewal of Eucharistic devotion, especially among young people, the bishop told me.
I wanted to send out this newsflash about Carlo today, as tomorrow is Holy Thursday, the anniversary of the day almost 2,000 year’s ago when the Lord celebrated the Passover supper with his disciples, and instituted the Holy Mass, the liturgy of thanksgiving for His efficacious sacrifice for the salvation of the world from sin.
A Blessed Holy Thursday to all.—RM
A convent of the Missionaries of Charity is next door to St. Rita’s Church in the Bronx. A dozen Missionaries of Charity participated in the ceremony to hand over the relic. Here is one of them holding the relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis. Photo by Jeff Bruno.
The text below comes from the following diocesan website, link.
WHO WAS CARLO ACUTIS?
Carlo Acutis was born May 3, 1991, in London, where his parents were working. Just a few months later, his parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, moved to Milan.
As a teenager, Carlo was diagnosed with leukemia. He offered his sufferings for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Church, saying “I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church.”
He died on October 12, 2006, and was buried in Assisi, at his request, because of his love for St. Francis of Assisi.
His cause for canonization began in 2013. He was designated “Venerable” in 2018, and designated “Blessed” October 10.
Carlo Acutis is the first millennial to be beatified.
SO, HE WAS PRETTY HOLY, HUH?
From a young age, Carlo seemed to have a special love for God, even though his parents weren’t especially devout. His mom said that before Carlo, she went to Mass only for her First Communion, her Confirmation, and her wedding.
But as a young child, Carlo loved to pray the Rosary. After he made his First Communion, he went to Mass as often as he could, and he made Holy Hours before or after Mass. He went to Confession weekly.
He asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages — to the places of the saints, and to the sites of Eucharistic miracles.
There was fruit of Carlos’ devotion in his life. His witness of faith led to a deep conversion in his mom, because, according to the priest promoting his cause for sainthood, he “managed to drag his relatives, his parents to Mass every day. It was not the other way around; it was not his parents bringing the little boy to Mass, but it was he who managed to get himself to Mass and to convince others to receive Communion daily.”
He was known for defending kids at school who got picked on, especially disabled kids. When a friend’s parents were getting a divorce, Carlo made a special effort to include his friend in the Acutis family life.
And he promoted Eucharistic miracles, especially through a website he built to promote them.
On the site, he told people that “the more often we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.”
When Carlo got sick, his life of faith increased. He was intentional about offering up his suffering for the Church, the pope, and for people who were suffering with illness.
[End, biography of Carlo Acutis]
A first-class relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis is seen at Holy Family Church in the Queens borough of New York City April 6, 2022, during a prayer rally for Catholic high school students in the Diocese of Brooklyn. The relic is a fragment of the pericardium, the membrane that surrounded and protected Blessed Acutis’ heart. It was brought to the Brooklyn Diocese by the archbishop of Assisi, Italy, as part of his five-day trip to the U.S. with the relic. (CNS photo/courtesy DeSales Media Group)
US Bishops Receive Relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis (link)
Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino presented the relic to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for the national Eucharistic Revival.
By Katie Yoder/CNA
April 9, 2022
The U.S. bishops recently welcomed a relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis. It is the teenager’s pericardium, or the sac that protected his heart.
“I now bring to you the relic of the pericardium, which is the membrane that surrounds the heart of a new blessed,” Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino, Italy, said April 7.
Archbishop Sorrentino presented the relic to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for the national Eucharistic Revival, a multi-year initiative by the bishops to foster devotion in Christ’s real presence.
The U.S. bishops will house the relic for one year “for a pilgrimage of faith and sanctity for all, especially for young people,” Archbishop Sorrentino said.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York received the relic on behalf of the USCCB during a Mass at St. Rita of Cascia-St. Pius V Church in the Bronx.
Archbishop Sorrentino concluded, “I’m going to end with [what] Carlo comes to teach us, [which] is a friendship with Jesus, a real friendship where Jesus becomes all in our lives.”
Blessed Carlo, an English-born Italian Catholic, used technology to spread devotion to the Eucharist before he died in 2006 at the young age of 15 from leukemia. Beatified in 2020, he is a patron for the revival.
In a press release Friday, the USCCB announced that there will be opportunities for Catholics to venerate the relic. This information will later be released at the website for the revival.
Cardinal Dolan, center, Bishop Sorrentino from Assisi, left, at the moment of the handover of the relic of Carlo Acutis on April 7 in St. Rita’s Church in the Bronx, New York City. Photo by Jeff Bruno.
A group of parishioners pray before an image and relic of Carlo Acutis on April 7 in St. Rita’s Church in the Bronx, New York City. Photo by Jeff Bruno
Blessed Carlo Acutis named a patron of Eucharistic Revival campaign (link)
Baltimore, Md., Nov 17, 2021 / 15:00 pm
Blessed Carlo Acutis will serve as the patron of the first year of a new three-year Eucharistic Revival project the U.S. bishops approved Nov. 17, a designation that entrusts a critical initiative to the intercession of a popular modern Catholic hero known for spreading devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.
Acutis, an English-born Italian Catholic who died in 2006 at age 15 shortly after being diagnosed with leukemia, used his technical prowess as an amateur computer programmer to share information online about Eucharistic miracles. He is the first Catholic from the Millennial generation to be beatified.
Among the sentiments Acutis shared online is his testimony that “the more often we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.”
That same message is at the heart of the bishops’ Eucharist campaign, which was endorsed Wednesday during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ annual fall assembly in Baltimore. Patrons for the other years of the campaign were not announced.
Set to officially launch with diocesan Eucharistic processions around the country on June 22, 2022 for the feast of Corpus Christi, the effort will include the creation of a new Eucharistic revival website, the development of new teaching materials, special training for diocesan and parish leaders, a traveling team of Eucharistic preachers, and a host of other initiatives.
The campaign will culminate with a National Eucharist Congress, the first of its kind in the United States in nearly 50 years, to be held July 17-21 in Indianapolis, Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens, one of the architects of the revival campaign, announced Wednesday. Cozzens is the bishop-designate for the Diocese of Crookston, Minn and an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.
The bishops’ campaign, which many Catholics view as long overdue, comes at a time when devotion to the Eucharist is lagging among those who identify themselves as Catholic, surveys and other indicators show.
That trend already was well underway during Acutis’ lifetime. His mother has said that before she had Carlo, she went to Mass only for her First Communion, her confirmation, and her wedding. But as a young child, Carlo loved to pray the Rosary. After he made his First Communion, he went to Mass as often as he could. He asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages, particularly to the sites of Eucharistic miracles.
Acutis was beatified on Oct. 10, 2020, in Assisi, Italy
This shows Carlo Acutis riding a bicycle in the valley beneath the Umbrian hill town of Assisi where St. Francis and St. Clare lived and died in the late 1100s and early 1200s. Acutis had a devotion to St. Francis and came often for many weeks in the summer to Assisi from his home in Milan. He is buried in Assisi next to the Bishop’s residence.
Relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis to Accompany Eucharistic Revival Initiative (link)
April 8, 2022
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) has been presented with a relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis by Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of the Diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino in Italy.
Blessed Carlo Acutis was an Italian teenager who used technology to spread devotion to the Eucharist before his death at age 15 from leukemia in 2006. He offered his sufferings for the Church and for the Holy Father, and Pope Francis has called him a role model for young people. He was beatified in 2020 and is one of the intercessors for the national Eucharistic Revival, a multi-year initiative by the bishops of the United States to reinvigorate devotion in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
Yesterday, Archbishop Sorrentino presented Blessed Carlo’s pericardium, a first-class relic, to the bishops’ conference for the Eucharistic Revival.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York, and Bishop Joseph A. Espaillat, auxiliary bishop of New York, were joined by Archbishop Sorrentino for Mass and adoration of the blessed sacrament at St. Rita of Cascia – St. Pius V’s Church in the Bronx.
During the Mass, Cardinal Dolan received the relic on behalf of the USCCB who will be the guardian of the relic for the multi-year Revival initiative.
Opportunities for the faithful throughout the United States to venerate Blessed Carlo’s relic as a part of the Revival will be made available, and information as it is finalized will be available at: https://eucharisticrevival.org.
The full Mass can be seen on the Facebook page.
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