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Associated Press

Pope Leo XIV declared a 15-year-old computer whiz the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint on Sunday, giving the next generation of Catholics a relatable role model who used technology to spread the faith and earn the nickname “God’s influencer”.
Leo canonised Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006, during an open-air Mass in St Peter’s Square before an estimated 80,000 people, many of them millennials and couples with young children.
During the first saint-making Mass of his pontificate, Leo also canonised another popular Italian figure who died young, Pier Giorgio Frassati.
Leo said both men created “masterpieces” out of their lives by dedicating them to God.

“The greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan,” Leo said in his homily. The new saints “are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces.”
Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London to a wealthy but not particularly observant Catholic family. They moved back to Milan soon after he was born and he enjoyed a typical, happy childhood, albeit marked by increasingly intense religious devotion.
Acutis was particularly interested in computer science and devoured university-level books on programming even as a school pupil.
He earned the nickname “God’s Influencer”, thanks to his main tech legacy: a multilingual website documenting so-called Eucharistic miracles recognised by the church, a project he completed at a time when the development of such sites was the domain of professionals.
Acutis was known to spend hours in prayer before the Eucharist each day. The Catholic hierarchy has been trying to promote the practice of Eucharistic adoration because, according to polls, most Catholics do not believe Christ is physically present in the Eucharistic hosts.
But Acutis limited himself to an hour of video games a week, apparently deciding long before TikTok that human relationships were far more important than virtual ones. That discipline and restraint has proved appealing to the Catholic hierarchy, which has sounded the alarm about the dangers of today’s tech-driven society.

In October 2006, at age 15, Acutis fell ill with what was quickly diagnosed as acute leukaemia. Within days, he was dead. He was entombed in Assisi, which is known for its association with another popular saint, St Francis.
In the years since his death, young Catholics have flocked by the millions to Assisi, where they can see the young Acutis through a glass-sided tomb, dressed in jeans, Nike trainers and a sweatshirt. He seems as if he is sleeping and questions have swirled about how his body was so well preserved, especially since parts of his heart have even toured the world as relics.
Both saint-making ceremonies had been scheduled for earlier this year but were postponed following Pope Francis’ death in April. Francis had fervently pushed the Acutis sainthood case forward, convinced that the church needed someone like him to attract young Catholics to the faith while addressing the promises and perils of the digital age.
“It’s like I can maybe not be as great as Carlo may be, but I can be looking after him and be like, ‘What would Carlo do?’” said Leo Kowalsky, an 8th grader at a Chicago school attached to the Blessed Carlo Acutis Parish.
Kowalsky said he was particularly excited that his own namesake – Pope Leo – would be canonising the patron of his school. “It’s kind of all mashed up into one thing, so it is joy to be a part of,” Kowalsky said in an interview last week.
Much of Acutis’ popularity is thanks to a concerted campaign by the Vatican to give the next generation of faithful a “saint next door” who was ordinary but did extraordinary things in life.




In Acutis, they found a relatable tech-savvy millennial – the term used to describe a person born roughly between 1981 and 1996 who was the first generation to reach adulthood in the new millennium.
The Vatican said 36 cardinals, 270 bishops and hundreds of priests had signed up to celebrate the Mass along with Leo in a sign of the saints’ enormous appeal to the hierarchy and ordinary faithful alike.
An hour before the Mass, St Peter’s Square was already full of pilgrims, many of them young millennial Italians.
“I learned from different people what his professors, his teachers said about his joy and the light he carried around him,” said Leopoldo Antimi, a 27-year-old Roman who got to the square early to secure a spot. “So for me personally as an Italian, even on social networks that are used so much, it is important to have him as an influencer.”
Matthew Schmalz, professor of religious studies at Holy Cross college in Worcester, Massachusetts, said Acutis’ canonisation extends the church tradition of popular piety to the digital age.
“He becomes an emblem or model of how Catholics should approach and use the digital world – with discipline and with a focus on traditional Catholic spirituality that defies the passage of time,” he said in a statement. “He is a new saint of simplicity for the ever complex digital landscape of contemporary Catholicism.”
Frassati, the other saint being canonised on Sunday, lived from 1901 to 1925, when he died at the age of 24 from polio. He was born into a prominent Turin family but is known for his devotion to serving the poor and carrying out acts of charity while spreading his faith to his friends.


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Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo declares teen computer whiz the first millennial saint

A person holds a picture depicting Carlo Acutis, the first millennial to be made a Catholic saint. Photo: Reuters

Scenes in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Pope Leo greets the family of Carlo Acutis. Photo: Vatican Media via EPA

LGBTQ Catholics celebrate new sense of acceptance in Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome

Members of the LGBTQ community attend a vigil prayer in the Church of the Gesu in central Rome on Friday. Photo: AP

A portrait of Pope Francis is seen in the Church of the Gesu during a vigil for members of the LGBTQ community, in Rome on Friday. Photo: AP

Justin Del Rosario (left) and John Capozzi arrive to attend a vigil prayer for members of the LGBTQ community in the Church of the Gesu in central Rome on Friday. Photo: AP

Reverend James Martin, a New York-based Jesuit, shows a commemorative photograph of Pope Leo outside St Peter’s Square in Rome, on Monday. Photo: AP

Cardinal’s meeting with Pope a good sign for Sino-Vatican relations

Cardinal Stephen Chow of Hong Kong (right) speaks with Pope Leo XIV on September 2 at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. Both held an in-depth exchange on the situation of the Church in China. Photo: Handout

Pope Leo XIV pledges commitment to Beijing-Vatican ties, Hong Kong cardinal says

Cardinal Stephen Chow met Pope Leo XIV on September 2 at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. Photo: Handout

Pope Leo XIV (left) and Cardinal Stephen Chow during a meeting at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. Photo: Handout

Who was Carlo Acutis, the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint-to-be?

Carlo Acutis spread the teachings of the Catholic Church by sharing his passion and faith. Photo: Little Flower Parish

Carlo Acutis from Milan was a gamer, just like many other boys his age. Photo: CatholicArena/X

Carlo Acutis influenced others simply by sharing his love and passion for his faith. Photo: FinallyHuman/X

Carlo Acutis died when he was only 15 years old. Photo: AcutisCarlos/X

Carlo Acutis is dressed in his tomb as he dressed in life – casually in a jumper, jeans and a pair of Nikes. Photo: Little Flower Parish

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Carlo Acutis, who died at 15 in 2006, was known for using technology to spread his faith


Carlo Acutis, who died at 15 in 2006, was known for using technology to spread his faith.
