It is the first holy millennial. A well-known theologian questioned his understanding of the Eucharist, which the church gives as a model to today’s young people.
Carlo Acutis / The canonization of the millennial also caused controversy; some classmates were unaware that he was a believer. The Church stands by it.
Carlo Acutis. Photo: carloacutis.com
The Catholic Church will declare Italian young man Carlo Acutis a saint on Sunday. For many Catholics, this is a rare and encouraging event, but there have also been controversies and dissenting opinions surrounding the process.
An extensive critical reportage text was presented, for example, by The Economist, a British publication. The author of the article, John Phipps, describes a visit to Assisi, where he met his classmates and the mother of Carl Acutis.
The text suggests that the driving force behind the cult around Carl was his mother. When her son died of leukemia in October 2006, she began speaking in churches and conferences around the world about Carl’s carefree and open faith. She engaged journalists to write books about him, hired designers and artists to create paintings, posters, and prayer cards bearing his likeness. This is how, according to a British magazine, she tried to open up the possibility of his canonization.
John Phipps describes how he met 97-year-old Wanda Gawronska, niece of Pier Giorgio Frassati, in Turin, who would be canonized along with Carlo Acutis.
„Why are you interested in Acutis?“ she asked Phipps Gawronsk. „ There is nothing interesting about it,“said the editor.
Phipps also spoke to Carl’s best friend, who claimed to the journalist that he did not know him as a pious boy. „ Actually, I didn’t even know Carlo was religious.“
Another childhood friend of Carl’s, Frederico Oldani, who works for an airline in Milan, told the editor that when he was eleven years old, he started attending school, where he befriended Carl, with whom he shared a passion for fast cars.
He describes how the family lived in a huge house that was impeccably clean and airy, and they also had staff there to take care of the household.
He also included a caretaker, Rajesh Mohur, who was Carl’s uncle. Oldani spent a lot of time as a boy at the Acutis house, playing video games with Carlo and watching movies.
He says Carlo was known for his love of comedy. Every week, there was an Italian stand-up show on television that he did not miss. He liked the type of humor he found in the Simpsons series the most: self-critical, absurd.
Foto: carloacutis.com
Carl’s friend also recalled how the new saint burned DVDs of favorite parts, and that he was a boy to laugh with.
Another friend of Carl’s, Michele del Vecchio, told a British newspaper that Carlo Acutis „ne was someone who would impose his interests on other people“. Del Vecchio said he and Carlo edited funny videos together with his pets.
When they were in high school, the boys borrowed rough comedies and went to see Carl. Oldani and del Vecchio also told how they watched a comedy where the hero happens to become the Pope. According to them, Carlo didn’t seem to worry about it.
However, friends remember how, during one debate at school, he declared that premarital sex is nasty. And when his classmates on the subject began to provoke him, Carlo was so anxious about it that they let it go.
His friend Oldani claims that Carlo never talked about Jesus, even though he knew his parents were religious. He saw Carl as a cultural Christian and had no idea that his faith was fervent. A British magazine also quotes another friend of Carl’s who also did not feel that he was a believer from the future saint.
However, Oldani knew that Carlo was creating a website to catalog miracles, but saw it only as his expression of a passion for programming. „ Although none of the school friends I spoke to mentioned that Carlo was publicly pious, they remembered him as unusually kind,“ writes a British journalist.
Another classmate of Carl’s, who was the only one unbaptized in the class, recalls that everyone in the class except Acutis was making fun of him for not being a child of God, but Carlo never evangelized him. Even though Acutis went to a different high school than del Vecchio and Oldani, the boys met once a week. His friends only learned at Acutis’ funeral that he was involved in the parish.
Carl’s friends stayed in touch with his mother, who once announced during a meeting in his honor that she was working on Carl’s beatification, asking his friends if they would testify in the process. Although neither was religious, they agreed, seeing it as a sign of loyalty to a deceased friend.
Oldani later started a Facebook group called Friends of Carla. At first, there were only people who knew Carl from school. Later, others joined who were clearly not friends from the school: they all appeared to be from South America and began posting sentimental religious content. In the end, he left managing the group to another person. He didn’t want to read things about his friend that portrayed him differently from how he knew him.
He didn’t watch TV, says Carl’s mother
The journalist also recalls an interview with Carl’s mother, Antonia, which he requested several times.
The Economist describes how she talked about her faith journey. When Carlo was not even four years old, her father died. Two months after his grandfather’s death, Carlo said that his grandfather appeared to him and said he was in purgatory and needed their prayers.
Carl’s mother was very frightened by the idea that the father was suffering and traveled to Bologna to see a well-known priest who could read his conscience before confessing it in confession. He then told her that her father was already in heaven.
When a journalist asked Carl’s mother about The Simpsons, she nodded her head, indicating that Carl didn’t have time to watch TV. The mother told the editor how, thanks to him, his friends got closer to the faith, how he prayed for hours and sat in front of the tabernacle.
Foto: carloacutis.com
When a journalist confronted her with the fact that Carl’s friends did not know he was religious, her facial expression froze. Then Antonia phoned two people and asked them to tell the journalist about his faith.
The canonization of Carlo Acutis is also put by some in connection with problems in the church, which were caused, for example, by sex scandals. According to this opinion, the church needs at all costs a positive example of a young man who will improve its image among the young.
Campaign against canonization
She writes that a campaign against the canonization of Carlo Acutis was created in Italy. According to the agency, the campaign was launched in March by the just-mentioned text from The Economist, „ which is not particularly in favor of the Catholic Church“.
However, the controversies were apparently started by the Italian liberal theologian Andrea Grillo, who is a full professor at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of St. Anzelma in Rome. The latter claims that Carlo had a distorted view of the Eucharist and accused those who conveyed the value of the Eucharist to the young man in this way.
„We should perhaps get to the point where we say that we recognize him as a saint ‚ despite his distorted fixation on Eucharistic miracles‘ “, says the professor. According to him, the problem does not concern Acutis, but the false teachers who surrounded him and who now want to project their evil theology on him.
Andrea Grillo criticizes the portrayal of a 15-year-old boy who repeats stereotypes from the 19th century, highlighting spirituality and concepts of sacrament and prayer that have been outdated for two hundred years.
According to him, the piety of Acutis results from the fixation on consecration (transformation) understood autonomously towards other parts of the mass–liturgy of the word, Eucharistic prayer, as well as towards the rite of communion.
The professor also criticizes Carl’s statement that the rosary is the shortest way to heaven. He points out that life is remarkable only when we begin to love God above all else and our neighbor as ourselves. Grillo also argues against other claims by the Vatican itself, based on which Carlo will be declared a saint.
Foto: carloacutis.com
Zenit states that many media outlets around the world have not understood the process of beatification and canonization. This process is reminiscent of a trial, and all objections to the canonization of a candidate are considered before a decision is made.
Another objection to Carl is that he comes from a rich family; his grandfather was a millionaire. Critics recall Jesus’ words that it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. But Jesus and Christianity do not teach that all the rich are destined for damnation in hell.
Zenit also responds to criticism that Carlo was not mature at 15 to achieve holiness. This argument distorts the maturity of teenagers. In some countries, child-aged youth are tried for criminal offences as adults.
Therefore, if society recognizes its responsibility as perpetrators of crimes, it should also acknowledge its merits for virtuous and holy deeds. In today’s world, a 15-year-old is not just a child, says Zenit.
According to the portal, Acutis expressed a traditional form of Catholicism and was a convinced supporter of the fact that there is an honest Jesus in the Eucharist. Today, even many Catholics no longer accept this doctrine, but consider it only a symbol.
„ Ultimately, it is Acutis’ unwavering belief in transubstantiation and miracles that plagues progressive Catholics and secular humanists,“ writes Zenit.
The idea that a young man from a distinguished family and a computer-gifted person could adhere to these „medieval“ doctrines is considered unacceptable by many. In the process of canonization, they oppose the „primitive“ or „reaction“ religion.
