Canonization of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, postponed after the death of Pope Francis
VATICAN CITY — The canonization of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis , has been postponed due to the death Monday of Pope Francis, the Vatican announced.
Acutis was to be canonized next Sunday, on the occasion of the Jubilee celebration for adolescents.
The canonization Mass was to be held at St. Peter's Square, but the faithful have been flocking to Assisi, Italy, where his body — wearing sneakers, jeans and a sweatshirt — lies in a shrine. He was 15 when he died after a short bout with leukemia.
Acutis used his computer savvy to create an online exhibit about more than 100 eucharistic miracles recognized by the church over many centuries, focused on the real presence of Christ that Catholics believe is in the consecrated bread and wine.
The Jubilee Mass for adolescents will go ahead.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
15 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
First millennial saint Carlo Acutis will be canonized Sept. 7, the pope says
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Friday set Sept. 7 as the rescheduled date to canonize the Catholic Church's first millennial-era saint Carlo Acutis. Leo made the announcement during a meeting of cardinals, known as a consistory, to set the dates for a handful of new saints. Acutis' canonization was originally scheduled for April 27, but was postponed following the death of Pope Francis on April 21. Acutis was 15 when he died in northern Italy in 2006, after a short bout with leukemia. He has become enormously popular especially among young Catholics who have been flocking to his tomb in Assisi. While he enjoyed regular pastimes for his age — hiking, video games, and joking around with friends – he also taught catechism in a local parish and did outreach to the homeless. He used his computer skills to create an online exhibit about more than 100 eucharistic miracles recognized by the church over many centuries. His tomb in Assisi has become a pilgrimage site especially during the 2025 Holy Year underway. It features a glass coffin in which Acutis can be seen dressed in sneakers, jeans and a sweatshirt, In setting the Sept. 7 date, Leo announced that Acutis would be canonized along with another Italian Catholic, Pier Giorgio Frassati, who also died young at age 24 after contracting polio. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Diocese announces Mass, observances to close Eucharistic Revival
The Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese will mark the closing of Eucharistic Revival in the Catholic church in America with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Mark L. Bartchak at 5 p.m. June 22 at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Altoona. Prior to the liturgy, the faithful will have the opportunity for Eucharistic adoration beginning at 11 a.m. and continuing throughout the afternoon. At 3 p.m., a holy hour for vocations will be prayed, and priests will celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy will be prayed at 4 p.m. for the intention of welcoming Catholics home to the church, and at 4:15 p.m., Bartchak will lead a Eucharistic procession inside the cathedral, leading up to the Mass. The national Eucharistic Revival has been a three-year movement by the bishops of the United States to educate and inspire Catholics to re-ignite their personal relationship with Christ through the Holy Eucharistic.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Commentary: Why nostalgia for the 1950s of ‘Leave it to Beaver' persists in America's religious right
Anyone looking to drench themselves in the 1950s nostalgia currently favored by the religious right in America should consider watching 'Leave It to Beaver' stoned. Which is what I did with an old friend in the 1980s while attending graduate school at the University of California-Berkeley. Nostalgia for the '50s — that land beyond time where Catholic traditionalists such as Notre Dame political theorist and post-liberal prophet Patrick Deneen dwell — idealizes imaginary communities of yore such as Mayfield, the setting for 'Leave it to Beaver,' where the values of faith, family, friends and flag all flourished. According to this narrative, late-stage liberalism and the globalization of markets, with their characteristic rootlessness, dissolve this communal existence. When I was at Berkeley in the 1980s, a large number of my childhood friends from Princeton, New Jersey, somehow found their way to the Bay Area. One afternoon, one of my Princeton buddies was house-sitting for an uncle in a Bay Area suburb. The uncle, whom I'll call Uncle Jim, had been my Cub Scout pack leader in Princeton when I was in elementary school. One sun-drenched afternoon, my friend and I settled into a couch, he rolled some joints and we flipped the TV to 'Leave It to Beaver' reruns. The series, on the air from 1957 and 1963, is a resonant symbol of '50s nostalgia, one to which conservative Catholics have returned as a template for modeling natural law. To Catholics who moved to the suburbs in the '50s and '60s, 'Leave It to Beaver' was a 'medieval morality play,' as Jerry Mathers, the Catholic actor who played young protagonist Theodore 'Beaver' Cleaver, put it. The show was a guide for young souls more tethered to television than to the suburban church. Michael De Sapio, writing in the online journal The Imaginative Conservative in 2017, states that, according to Mather, Beaver Cleaver 'repeatedly succumbed to temptation, suffered the consequences, and was guided back on the path of virtue.' In other words, these archetypal storylines and characters represent a moral imagination that 'elevates us to first principles as it guides us upwards towards virtue and wisdom and redemption,' in the words of American philosopher Russell Kirk. De Sapio continues: 'The emphasis on decorum and good manners in the Cleaver family conveyed a vision of the good, true and beautiful.' Mathers shared that the casting directors for the show selected him to play Beaver when they asked where he would prefer to be after they noticed he was uneasy at the audition. His guileless reply: his Cub Scouts den meeting. Notably, the mission of the Scouts is to 'prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.' Which returns us to Uncle Jim, my former Cub Scouts leader. He was an electrical engineer who ended his first marriage and moved to California in the 1970s, where he married a woman several decades younger and shed the trappings of his formerly decorous identity. 'Leave It to Beaver' mirrored and shaped the aspirations of millions of Catholics moving to the suburbs after World War II, and it has lingered as an idealized — and exclusive — depiction of the American Dream. The only nonwhite characters to appear in the show's 234 episodes were a Black man exiting a dairy truck in the episode 'Eddie, the Businessman' (1962) and a Black actress who plays a maid in the 1963 episode 'The Parking Attendants.' Within months of its final episode in June 1963 — following the March on Washington, D.C., in August led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the November assassination of President John F. Kennedy — 'Leave It to Beaver' had become a charming artifact of mid-century optimism, more a product of nostalgia and romantic imagination than a realistic model for America's future. _____ Peter H. Schwartz writes at the broad intersection of philosophy, politics, history and religion. He publishes the Wikid World newsletter on Substack. _____
