Blessed Carlo Acutis’ Tomb Closes After Extended Time of Public Veneration

Pilgrims who stood in line outside the church in the weeks before and after Acutis’ Oct. 10 beatification were able to see a young person on the path to sainthood who lies in repose in jeans and a pair of Nike tennis shoes.

Sorrentino said in his homily at a Mass at the tomb Oct. 17 that Acutis, like St. Francis of Assisi, was “capable of speaking the language of young people, which is the language of originality, of authenticity.”

“Carlo and Francis want to speak to young people in their language to say that they are joyful, happy, original, but on the right path, which is the way of Jesus. We must therefore ensure that this language of theirs reaches young people,” he added.

In a Mass at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Acutis became the first millennial to be beatified. 

Growing up in Milan in the 1990s and early 2000s, he played video games and taught himself C++ and other computer programming languages. But many have testified that the center of the teen’s life was his strong devotion to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

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From a young age, Acutis expressed a special love for God, even though his parents weren’t especially devout. As he grew older, he started attending daily Mass, often making Holy Hours before or after Mass, and went to confession weekly.

He built websites to inform others about Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions around the world. On his site, he told people, “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.”

Acutis died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15. 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.”

Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.