Inside a century-old church in Toledo, Ohio, is a decidedly newer statue of a soon-to-be-saint.
The image of Blessed Carlo Acutis depicts the Italian teenager with his laptop, his rosary, a camera, a soccer ball and his pet dog.
Blessed Carlo was a computer programer and Eucharist devotee who died of cancer in 2006 at age 15.
Young people are especially drawn to Blessed Carlo, who will be canonised 27 April. Cristian Parga said he and his classmates were researching confirmation saints last year when Blessed Carlo caught his eye.
“I think just his kindness—seeing how young he was and so devoted to God and helping others —made me kind of want to do the same,” said Parga, now a freshman at St Francis de Sales School in Toledo.
“That really made me want to make something with my class so everybody else could learn about him.”
Miguel Garcia, 27, a Milwaukee-based missionary for Iskali, a ministry geared toward young Latinos, first learned about Blessed Carlo when he saw a picture of him dressed in a Spider-Man costume.
“I always felt like I never connected with a saint,” he said. “When I heard about Blessed Carlo, it was like I had a friend in heaven, like somebody was representing me.”
