For Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano It was almost a return to the past, when they accompanied the son Carlo al Leo XIII, The Institute of the Jesuit Fathers of Milan attended by the boy for a year, from September 2005 to September 2006 (29 was his last day), up to the diagnosis of fulminating leukemia that led him to death on October 12 at the age of 15.
The auditorium is crowded with people, about six hundred pupils, former pupils, professors and parents, and, a little surprise, on stage, in addition to the mother, to bring her testimony is also the father Andrea, usually very shy and reserved, together with the director Vincenzo Sibilloto Father Vitangelo denora and to the auxiliary bishop of Naples, Monsignor Francesco Beneducemoderate by Andrea Ceredani of Happen.
A photo of Carlo Acutis is projected at 9 years old who wears a shirt with the writing “Start, acceleration, finish” And he smiles carefree. “In his whole life Carlo has always been like this: he burned the stages,” says the mother looking at the image with a wire of emotion, “always a move forward and also in faith, because otherwise he could not have done everything he has done. After all, 15 years are few. But you can see that the Lord had this haste». The parents tell of a “normal” boy, ironic, cheerful, playful, who lived his faith in a very simple but convinced way.
The First Communion at 7 years old, the Cresima at 11, the catechism taught to the children of the parish of Santa Maria Segreta, in Milan, the mass every day, the prayer in front of Jesus Eucharist, but also the gestures of charity that Carlo constantly and almost in the hiding made as to bring the blankets to the homeless, to help the poor while a very creative video that he had made to the lion is projected to invite his companions. He was passionate about computer science, he read the university level manuals, used complex platforms like Java But he had a life program that gave a horizon of meaning to all these things, embracing them in a wider and more profound meaning: «He always said “Being always combined with Jesus, this is my life program”»Says the mother,” and that’s what he also did with great creativity as the interactive exhibition on the Eucharistic miracles that traveled the world by stopping in over ten thousand parishes “. And he contributed to Carlo Acutis the “patron of the Internet” and increase their global devotion, especially in the United States and Latin America.
The last class of Carlo Acutis class register, found by the director Sibillo who guards on the last day of the boy in the classroom: on 29 September 2006, when a mass was celebrated, is also shown on the auditorium stage for the first time. “I was present on October 12, on the day of his death,” says Monsignor Beneduce, at the time delegated for the Jesuit schools, “I was told that a pupil had been dead for a few hours: I still remember that air of sadness. But that it was not one of the many I understood only in the following years, when the good he did he grew up like a seed».
Andrea Acutis, President of Vittoria Assicurazioni, he tries to explain why, beyond the next canonization, the story of his son has affected so many people: “His character, rather than faith, impressed many people favorably”, he explains, “The pasta of the parish, for example, after his death he wrote a wonderful poetry on Carlo. Intrigued, I went to talk to him but told me that he had never had a conversation with my son, who greeted him only. This was enough to understand how different it was in relationships with people ». Andrea Acutis starting from the life experience of his child turns to the boys and their parents: «Now we live with the ideal of freedom but this leaves many confused boys. They ask themselves: how do you do, even before thinking about faith, to have order in life? Here, Carlo had understood that our freedom is limited, but that there is a personal freedom that not even a dictator could affect, which is to choose what we want to love. Carlo was not a bigot but he understood what freedom is ».
And to the question about how he lived the fulminating disease of his son replies: “The Lord does not only give the crosses but also the grace to bring them”.
Carlo Acutis’ remains rest in Assisi, in Sanctuary of the locker where in the autumn of 2020 it was beatified. The canonization was expected on April 27 on the occasion of the adolescents’ Jubilee but was postponed following the death of Pope Francis. The new date? The parents do not know her while her mother Antonia expresses a hope: «We hope it canonino on August 3, together with Pier Giorgio Frassati, on the occasion of the Jubilee of young people. Both had in common the same love for Jesus and then it would be an opportunity to unite teenagers and young people in the sign of two extraordinary figures».
A hope for now. It is up to Pope Leone XIV Deciding but the devotion to Carlo Acutis has infected millions of teenagers and young people from all over the world as shown by the banners with his face that stood out in St. Peter’s Square on April 27 for the adolescents jubilee.
