Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino, the bishop of Assisi, Italy, and curator of the tomb and relics of Carlo Acutis, was in town in July as part of a national tour to spotlight the life and legacy of the renowned teen, who used technology to evangelize before dying of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15. Acutis was beatified on Oct. 10, 2020, and canonized on Sept. 7 of this year.
The archbishop celebrated masses and offered public venerations of a relic of Acutis at two Chicago parishes: on July 15 at Blessed Carlo Acutis Parish (St. Hedwig Church), the only parish in North America named for the teen, and on July 16 at Christ Our Light Parish.
The archbishop and two women religious from Assisi were given a personal tour of sites related to Pope Leo while they were in town, according to an article in the Chicago Catholic.
“Acutis is considered the first millennial saint,” Chicago Catholic editor Joyce Duriga wrote. “A deeply devout teen who taught himself coding, he created a website documenting miracles. Through this action, he captured global attention and is being widely embraced by young Catholics around the world.”
“Carlo is an influencer on the first level, but his influence comes from Jesus,” the archbishop told Duriga. “At just 15 years, he had dreams of spending his life with Jesus, but two months before his death he had a premonition he would die. Carlo is a way Jesus is using to say to the church, ‘Take courage. Restart.’”
