Normal Christianity

Behind the Basilica of Saint Francis in is a quite road leading to the town cemetery. Here, last week, the body of a young Italian boy, Carlo Acutis, was exhumed (apparently found incorrupt) before being translated to a local Church.

Carlo was born in London in 1991 from a very wealthy Italian family. His parents returned to at the age of three. Carlo was a normal boy, lively, sporty and with a special gift for computers. Following his First Holy Communion at the age of seven Carlo developed a deep love for the Mass, receiving Holy Communion daily, going to confession weekly and praying the . He called the his “motor-way to Heaven”. At the age of eleven he convinced his (not very practising) parents to visit all the major where Eucharistic miracles had taken place, cataloguing them in a website, still working today (http://www.miracolieucaristici.org) !

At the age of fifteen, he caught flu, and was then diagnosed with leukemia. He died after only three days, on the 12 October 2006, offering his life for the Pope and the Church. One of the quotes Carlo is best remembered for is: “Being always close to Jesus, that is the plan of my life.”

In July 2018, recognised his heroic virtues named him “Venerable”. The next step in the canonization process would be for Carlo to be beatified.

When you read about this teenager, you sense he was a very ‘normal’ teen. A normal boy who understood his life as a journey of ‘sanctification’. Staying close to Jesus, receiving the sacraments regularly, speaking of God to others, all of this is not special, it is called ‘normal Christianity’ !

Father Ivano