When Carlo Acutis first came onto our radars, my first impression was not jubilation that millennials finally would have a saint to call their own. I wasn’t even that impressed with what he accomplished online. I was struck by how young he was.
At 15, we know so little of the world at large—only our immediate one of school, friends, and budding adulthood. He never had the chance to enjoy it. I think of Antonia, Carlo’s mother, who carried, birthed, raised, and buried this remarkable young man who has won the hearts of Catholics worldwide. The Church would gain a saint, but his mother lost a child. My first reaction is to acknowledge her grief, to pray for a wound that will never heal.
—from St. Anthony Messenger‘s “Thy Eternal Summer Shall Not Fade‘”
by Christopher Heffron
