The Sydney Archdiocese will host a relic of the recently-canonised St Carlo Acutis with a welcome Mass later this month and a tour of Greater Sydney in October.
St Acutis was renowned for using the internet and digital technologies to evangelise the faith, creating websites to catalogue the Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions around the world before passing away from leukaemia at the age of 15 in 2006.
The relic which will tour Sydney is a section of St Acutis’ pericardium, the membrane which surrounds the heart.
The relic will travel with Monsignor Anthony Figuerido from the diocese of Assisi, with Monsignor Figuerido concelebrating the welcome Mass for the relic at 5.30pm on 25 June presided by Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP. Catechesis and an opportunity to venerate the relic will follow the Mass.
The relic will then embark on a national tour of the dioceses around Australia, including in regional areas in NSW, before returning to Sydney in October prior to its departure.
Director for the Sydney Centre of Evangelisation Daniel Ang hopes the relic will stand as a “powerful reminder” of how God raises up saints from in every generation, and how people can deepen their faith and evangelise to others in their every day life.
“Carlo’s witness reminds us that the Eucharist is at the heart of the Christian life, and that even the digital world and the ordinary circumstances of daily life can become places of encounter with Christ,” he said.
“It’s our hope that all who come to venerate these relics will be drawn closer to Christ, whom Carlo loved above all else.
“His life points us to Jesus, reminding us that holiness is not simply a story from the past but a calling for each of us today.”
