Carlo Acutis, the young Italian teenager who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of fifteen, continues to inspire people around the world with his love for the Eucharist, his devotion to the Virgin Mary, and his creative use of modern technology to spread the Gospel. Known as a “computer genius,” he built websites and curated a worldwide exhibition on Eucharistic miracles—all while living a life of deep faith rooted in the ordinary joys of youth.
As the Church prepares to recognize him among the saints, his witness offers both a model and a challenge: to live holiness in the everyday, to use technology for good, and to keep Christ at the center of life.
In this conversation, Andreas Thonhauser, Vice President and Chief Global Officer of EWTN, speaks with Nicola Gori, the postulator of Carlo Acutis’ cause for canonization. Together, they reflect on Carlo’s spirituality, his normal teenage life, and the enduring legacy of this soon-to-be saint for the Church today.
Nicola Gori, you are the postulator for Carlo Acutis. Can you tell us a little bit what you have learned from this soon to be saint, very young Saint for your own life?
I was immediately fascinated by the brevity of his life and the intensity of his spirituality, his experience with God, he is able not only to transmit but also to engage his peers in this adventure, let’s say, towards God, in this search for the divine, in the search for the supernatural, Carlo has traced a path for everyone, but particularly for his peers, because he is a pioneer.
You mentioned his spirituality. How would you define this in a few sentences?
The essence of Carlo’s spirituality is the Eucharist and devotion to the Virgin Mary. These are the two pillars of Carlo. Carlo lived as a soul in love with the Eucharist. So, his entire life was centered around the Eucharist, participation in mass, Eucharistic Adoration, and then making Jesus known to others, bringing the message of Jesus to others. The Virgin Mary was for him, as he often repeated, the only woman in his life, and he did not want to miss the date, as they say, by reciting the rosary. For him, reciting the rosary was about speaking with Mary every day in the ordinary moments of life.
But he’s also famous to bring the spirituality out into online, into the World Wide Web, and to let others participate on it.
We know that he was a computer genius, studying from university textbooks, despite being only in middle school. From a technical standpoint, he would have become an engineer. But what did he do with this? He put his talent at the service of his faith. He created the website for his parish in Milan, and he created the website for the “Cultorum Martyrum,” the Pontifical Academy, and then he managed to create that famous exhibition of Eucharistic miracles which traveled around the world.
In one hand, it’s beautiful that we have so many documents, images, videos of him and testimonies also of him. And at the same time, there’s so much to look at because you have to look at everything that he wrote, everything that he recorded, if it’s in line with sainthood.
Certainly, we know that during the diocesan process in Milan, two computer experts analyzed his computer, everything he viewed and everything he had on it, they found that there was nothing unusual. Everything was focused on the search for the good. He would visit websites to deepen his knowledge, whether looking for photos of operatic music or researching exhibitions about the Virgin Mary or figures of holiness. So he used the web in a clean, honest way. And as a result, he is a witness who tells everyone it is indeed possible to use the internet for good purposes.
He was very focused on the Eucharist, on praying the rosary and Devotion to Mary. At the same time, he seems also to have been a very normal child, a very normal teenager. My son loves the image of Carlo Acutis costumed as a Spider Man.
Indeed, he was a young man like any other identical. He loved to play. He loved to have fun, and he would go out with his friends. He loved animals. Had many cats, and would make videos with them, inventing stories. And he would dress up as superheroes, just like superheroes, but in all of this, he would always incorporate his faith. So he was a boy who played soccer, liked to take trips to the countryside, enjoyed being in nature, loved swimming, and in the summer, he would go to Assisi and help the lifeguards clean the pools. He was a boy, like all others, but he had this extra something, this secret within him, which was his friendship with Jesus.
Thank you very much for being with us.
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Adapted by Jacob Stein
Produced by Alexey Gotovskiy; Camera by Alberto Basile and Fabio Gonella; Video Edited by Andrea Manna
