Page 10 - St. Joseph Messenger September 2020

News of Interest

“To be always close to Jesus, that is my plan”

W
ith these ten words Venerable Carlos Acutis set out the course of his life here on earth.
This life was brief - only 15 years; but those years were dedicated to Jesus Christ and they
led him to the reward of eternal life as a potential saint.
Carlos was a devout Catholic who made every effort to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist
daily. He also prayed the rosary every day. He was a gifted student whose passion lay in everything
having to do with computers. He far exceeded his peers in computer programming, website creation,
and even film editing. This led him to begin his most well-known project of cataloguing every
Eucharistic miracle that has been authenticated by the Church. He was only eleven years old when
he took on this project.
This devout and dedicated youth researched and catalogued these miracles, often visiting the sites
of the miracles. His computer talent allowed him to create a website which is a virtual museum of
these miracles. This website can be found at: http://www.carloacutis.com/
Shortly after he completed this project, he was diagnosed with M3 fulminant leukemia and
succumbed to this disease on October 12, 2006. He was declared a Servant of God in 2016 and on
July 5, 2018, he became Venerable Carlo Acutis. His cause for sainthood continues as he will be
beatified on October 10, 2020 in Assisi, Italy. His remains were exhumed in early 2019 and initial
thought is that his body is incorrupt; but further examination and testing must be done to determine
this with certainty.
Venerable Carlos Acutis had a foolproof plan for his life. It is a plan that suits every person whose
goal is to spend eternity with Jesus Christ in Heaven. His philosophy was this:

“To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan. I’m happy to die because
I’ve lived my life without wasting even a minute of it doing things that
wouldn’t have pleased God.”

See back page for
video of Carlos Acutis.

8