Carlo Acutis Points Us Toward Heaven

August 4, 2024
 

This past month, the College of Cardinals approved the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis, ensuring that he will become the first millennial saint of the Catholic Church. This was preceded by Pope Francis’ recognition in June of a second miracle attributed to Acutis’ intercession. With a date for the canonization Mass yet to be determined, the possibility remains for it to occur during the upcoming Jubilee Year of 2025.
 

The intact, though not incorrupt, body of Carlo Acutis is exhibited today in a glass case in the Shrine of the Renunciation in Assisi, Italy. The Shrine is named for Saint Francis’ moment of renunciation, when he stripped off his fine garments before his father and the local bishop in a statement of detachment from the world. It’s a fitting resting place for Carlo’s remains due to the way he lived his life and met his death.
 

When he was just three years old, Carlo witnessed his grandfather receive the anointing of the sick on his deathbed. After his grandfather died, Carlo said he’d “gone to Jesus” and asked to be taken to church to pray.
 

Though his parents were only nominally Catholic, Carlo satisfied his curiosity about the faith by asking questions of his devout Polish babysitter; and he grew in holiness, developing a devotion to Francis of Assisi and following in the saint’s footsteps through a love for the sacraments, care for creation, and acts of kindness towards those in need.
 

Providing witness to many people throughout his life, Carlo eventually led his parents into a fervent practice of the faith; and he is best known today for building a website documenting Eucharistic Miracles and Marian apparitions from around the world.
Carlo chose the good at every turn of his life, which makes his death at the young age of 15 seem like such a bitter loss. He and his family did not even know he was sick until a week and a half before he died. His symptoms first manifested in early

October of 2006; one week later, he was diagnosed with leukemia; a few days after that, he was dead.

But even amid this devastating, Job-like turn of events, Carlo chose the good, offering up his suffering for Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church. The day before he died, Carlo came full circle in his journey of faith by following in his grandfather’s footsteps and requesting the anointing of the sick.
 

The last words Carlo spoke to his mother were: “Mom, don’t be afraid. Since Jesus became a man, death has become the passage towards life, and we don’t need to flee it. Let us prepare ourselves to experience something extraordinary in the eternal life.”
 

Though Carlo was born in England due to his parents’ work, the family moved back to Italy while he was still an infant. He grew up in Milan, where he once made pilgrimages to every church in the city as an alternative to visiting the Holy Land, saying of Christ, “He is here now.”
 

It would be fitting for Blessed Carlo Acutis to be raised to the altars in the year 2025, when pilgrims will flock to Rome for the standard plenary indulgence granted in a Jubilee Year. May Rome, and all of Italy, and especially the City of Assisi in the region of Umbria, the land of saints, come alive in celebration of this first millennial saint, who spent his life pointing the rest of us toward heaven.

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Garan Santicola

July 7, 2024

An Exhibit of Sacred Art 
 

     Currently on display at the Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center in New Haven, Connecticut, is a sacred art exhibit entitled “Do This in Memory of Me.” Organized and curated by the St. Edmund’s Sacred Art Institute in Mystic, Connecticut, as part of the National Eucharistic Revival, the exhibit showcases the work of artists from around the country in a variety of mediums with insightful takes on the theme of the Eucharist.  

     Highest honors in this juried exhibition went to Robert Armetta’s Entombment, an oil on canvas painting of the dead Christ sprawled across a stone slab awaiting preparation for burial. A work of stark realism, Entombment highlights the desolation of Christ inherent to the Eucharistic sacrifice.   

     Second place was Kate Capato’s The Well, an oil on linen painting of the woman at the well pouring back the water she just drew as she gazes at Christ in a moment of complete surrender, finally realizing her true desire; and an outstretched arm is all we see of Christ as the woman’s look reveals His transformative presence.  

     Third place went to Neil Hughes’ Agnus Dei, an oil painting of a solemn, high Latin Mass, wherein a deacon, subdeacon, and several altar servers flank a priest performing the Consecration as incense rises towards the crucifix they face. 

In a few of the honorable mentions, Mary takes center stage as the lens through which to understand the person of Christ: Mia Lang’s charcoal and graphite drawing A Mother’s Heart depicts Mary kissing the baby Jesus. In Jennifer Ward’s egg tempera with gold leaf icon Noli Me Tangere – Touch Me Not Mary turns from the empty tomb to find the risen Christ. And Mary sits upon a cloud with her feet resting upon a crescent moon, cradling the baby Jesus, in Joseph DeVito’s sculpture in clay Mary, Mother of the life Within.  

     Honorable mentions were also given to: James Langley’s mixed media Holy Communion, showing a communicant kneeling to receive the Eucharist; Ewa Krepsztul’s egg tempura on wood The Word Became Flesh Triptych, a three-paneled representation of the miracle of transubstantiation; and Anthony Suppa’s oil painting St. Peter Denies Christ, wherein an anguished Peter leans on a large earthen vessel that represents the dust of the earth, a nearby skull represents mortality, a rooster represents conscience, and Peter clutches his keys to keep a firm grip on the Barque amid his trial. 

     A selection from this exhibit will travel to Indianapolis for display at the Eucharistic Congress from July 17th to 20th before returning to the Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center, where works will remain on display until August 25th. In a statement about the intent of the exhibit and its importance to the Eucharistic Revival, Deacon Francis Valliere, Coordinator of St. Edmund’s Sacred Art Institute, said, “We want to get across to people that God’s beauty can help heal them.” 

     The interplay between beauty, healing, and the Eucharist is a unifying thread running throughout the entirety of the exhibit as each work invites contemplation of the love of God at the heart of the sacrifice of the Catholic Mass. Following in the footsteps of Catholic artists throughout the centuries, the creators of these works inspire faith in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist by utilizing the beauty of their craft to open hearts to God’s healing gift.