Salt Lake City bishop tells young people celebrating St Carlo Acutis' canonization: ‘You are a blessing for the Church’

During a Mass Sept. 12 celebrating the canonization of the first Millennial saint, the bishop of Salt Lake City extolled Saint Carlo Acutis’ holiness and encouraged the young people present. 

“Sainthood is not about beautiful words, it is about the faith, love, and good works,” Bishop Oscar Solis said in his homily, according to Intermountain Catholic. “He embodied all that.” 

Six priests concelebrated the Mass of Thanksgiving, which took place at St. Ann Catholic Church in Salt Lake City. Several diocesan deacons assisted.

Many young people were in attendance, and Bishop Solis began his homily by welcoming them, saying: “You are a blessing for the Church.”

Sharing about his joy to be celebrating the Mass of Thanksgiving, Bishop Solis also said, “I feel young at heart,” according to Intermountain Catholic.

Bishop Solis said in his homily that the saint was very much like all the young people gathered in the pews. St. Carlo, he explained, “had an ordinary life, like all of us. But an ordinary life that became extraordinary.”

St. Carlo was unafraid to share the Gospel, the bishop said. He did not live his life for himself, but for God.

Pope Leo canonized St. Carlo and Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati on Sept. 7, as CatholicVote previously reported. St. Carlo died of leukemia at the age of 15 shortly after finishing work on a website documenting Eucharistic miracles.

Cesar Basteregi, an 18-year-old parishioner of Saint Joseph in Ogden who attended the Thanksgiving Mass, told Intermountain Catholic about how St. Carlo’s story has made an impact on him. 

“To have a saint that was like us, that dressed like us, that lived like us, is something that has made me reflect a lot of the goodness of our faith,” he said. “Now I know that we can all be saints if we really open our hearts to Jesus.”

>> Wisconsin Catholic school names playground after St Carlo Acutis <<