On October 11th, last Sunday, Pope Francis beatified a new saint, an Italian teenager, Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15. Blessed Carlo was just a normal teen who loved soccer, but really loved computers. He loved his PlayStation, making videos, had a cellphone and an e-mail address and embraced the web and the internet. Just a modern, ordinary kid.
Carlo attended Mass daily, they say, from the time of his First Holy Communion, at age 7. He fell in love with the Eucharist. He fell in love with computers and began studying computers, graphic design and programming around the age of 9. He created a website to catalog Eucharistic miracles. Carlo learned self control, and would self-limit his time on the computer and other activities to keep them from taking control of his life. He is called the patron saint of the Internet, for the good use he found in it.
He performed many good works for the less fortunate, and brought many to the Catholic faith, including his own mother. Carlo said of the Eucharist, “the more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven”.