(ZENIT News / Rome, 16.06.2024).- Antonia Salzano, mother of Carlo Acutis who will soon be canonized, thinks that her son is a great intercessor. She said this with a mother’s tender words: “A sign from Heaven.”
The Pope will canonize the youth, on a date to be made known on July 1, 2024, after approving a miracle attributed to his intercession. The Holy See announced that the person who was cured by Carlo Acutis’ intercession is a young girl from Costa Rica: in 2022 she suffered a cyclist accident, which left her with a severe cranioencephalic trauma. The doctors gave her up for dead and she remained with assisted breathing.
The young girl’s mother visited Assisi and stayed kneeling before Carlo Acutis’ tomb for a whole day. She left a letter and returned to her daughter, who began to breathe spontaneously.
Carlo was proclaimed Blessed on October 10, 2020 in the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, after the miracle was confirmed of little Matheus, a Brazilian boy from Campo Grande do Sul, who suffered from annular pancreas, a congenital malformation which impeded his eating and made him vomit when he ate. His mother, Luciana Vianna, said:
“At three and a half years old, he weighed 9 kilos. He was fed with a substance called milk, but which was pure protein and broken vitamins, as his body was unable to absorb them and only stayed minutes in his stomach.”
Luciana learnt that a relic of Carlo Acutis would be taken to her church; she witnessed the presentation of the relic during the Mass, and prayed for a miracle. “The priest said that anyone who needed a miracle should pray to Carlo because, to become a Saint, such a request was needed. It was the only thing that was lacking.”
Antonia Salzano, mother of the so-called “Cyber Apostle of the Eucharist,” said recently she was certain that her son was a great intercessor before God. “He has a way of convincing the Lord so that Jesus cannot say no. And this gives me a little tenderness.” She also said that she receives daily news of cures, of unexpected help, of small extraordinary things that many people receive through her son’s intercession.
She expressed an important focus of her son’s life, who has “an important mission, especially among young people, to whom he left an exemplary witness of life in the simplicity of the daily (. . .). Carlo transmits an essential message: the importance of the Sacraments and of the sanctification of daily life.” Moreover, he is “a sign of hope, because he is a youth of today, who evolved in the world itself, peopled by the same dangers as all young people face, such as pornography, alcohol and drugs.” In face of these traps, Carlo is a tranquilizing example, because he was able to remain unharmed without falling into to them.”
And she adds: “Now the Lord has fulfilled the desire of the many who prayed for Carlo’s canonization. We see it, obviously, as a sign from Heaven. It will surely enable him to carry out an even greater work than he is doing.”
Antonia said that her son loved God above all, and was able to make people change, even before his death in 2006. “So he also changed his mother, who wasn’t in fact an example of holiness.”
Carlo Acutis had the mission to show many the importance of the Sacraments, effective signs of God to give the grace of sanctification, as his mother recalls. “Carlo would say it to everyone, to young Internet users, to those far from the faith, to all.” She also pointed out that his life was concentrated before its time. “At three months, he already said his first word. He started talking at five months, it was also thus with the faith: when we passed by a church he wanted to go in to greet Jesus. He would stay there and I would say to him that it was already late; he was only three years old.”
He made his First Communion when he was seven and then went to Mass every day, frequently to Eucharistic Adoration, to pray the Rosary. One could tell there was something within him and I believe people even approached him because of that.”
His behaviour since he was little manifested uncommon conduct. “What I never thought was that Jesus would take him from me so soon. But God’s plans are always greater. We accept Carlo’s death, although it was premature, with faith and with the certainty that God does all that is best. And today, more than ever, we feel it so.”
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We offer, translated into English, the official ration of intercession to the forthcoming Saint approved by Bishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi:
Oh God, our Father, thank you for having given us Carlo, a model of life for young people and a message of love for all. You made him fall in love with your Son Jesus, making of the Eucharist his “path to Heaven.” You gave him Mary as his beloved Mother and with the Rosary You made her a singer of her tenderness. Accept his prayer for us.
Look especially at the poor, those he loved and helped. Through his intercession, grant to me also the grace I need. And make our joy full by placing Carlo among the Blessed of your Holy Church, so that his smile shines before us again for the glory of your Name.
Amen.
