Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, met Thursday with Pope Francis, who approved the promulgation of several decrees concerning the canonization of several men and women.
For young Catholics, by far the most interesting is the recognition of the miracle attributed to Blessed Carlo Acutis. The young layman was born on May 3, 1991 in London, England, and died on October 12, 2006 in Monza, Italy, succumbing to leukemia at the age of 15.
Carlo Acutis will become the first millennial saint, i.e. a person born at the turn of the 80s - 90s. Teenager Carlo Acutis is often called a patron of the Internet and a "God influencer" among Catholics because of his computer skills, which he used to share his faith. Carlo was born in London to Italian parents and moved with his family to Milan when he was a child. His passion for Catholicism manifested itself at a young age. At age 7, he began attending daily mass.
Pope Francis beatified the millennial in 2020 in Assisi, where Blessed Carlo made repeated pilgrimages and where his remains are interred.
The miracle recognized Thursday involves a Costa Rican woman.
On July 8, 2022, Liliana prayed at the tomb of Blessed Carlo in Assisi, leaving a letter outlining her request. Six days earlier, on July 2, her daughter Valeria fell from her bicycle in Florence, where she was studying at university. She suffered a severe head injury and required craniotomy surgery to remove the right occipital bone to relieve pressure on her brain, with her doctors saying her chances of survival were very low. Liliana began to pray to Blessed Carlo Acutis, and on July 8 she made a pilgrimage to his tomb in Assisi.
On the same day, the hospital informed her that Valeria had begun to breathe on her own. The next day she began to move and partially regained her speech. On July 18, a computed tomography scan showed that the bleeding had disappeared, and on August 11, Valeria was transferred to rehabilitation treatment. She recovered quickly, and on September 2, Valeria and Liliana made another pilgrimage to Assisi to thank Blessed Charles for his intercession.
In a decree published Thursday, Pope Francis announced that he would convene a Consistory of Cardinals to discuss the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis.
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