Thane: A holy relic of Carlo Acutis, a British-Italian teenager who is the first millennial to be beatified by the Roman Catholic Church, will be brought to Our Lady of Mercy church in Thane on Sunday. A relic is an object associated with a holy person. The relic of Carlo Acutis is traveling all over the world. It will be brought to other churches in Mumbai next week.
Beatification, in which a person is declared 'blessed' is the second in the three-step process followed by the Roman Catholic Church, an organisation with more than a billion members, to create a saint. Carlo is reported to have been a very religious teenager though his parents were not particularly so.
He is often called 'The patron saint of internet' because of his computer skills. He helped in the creation of a website cataloging Catholic miracles. Carlo declared 'blessed 'by Pope Francis on October 10, 2020, five years after his death due to leukemia, after medical miracles were attributed to his intercession.
The Vatican, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, said that a Brazilian boy was cured of a pancreatic disease in 2013 after Carlo's intercession. A second miracle is needed to become a saint though there have been instances in the past when the Vatican has not used the rule.
Carlo was born in London to Italian parents, but grew up in Milan, Italy. He was buried in Assisi, a town in Italy associated with Christian pilgrimages. It is reported that from a young age, he displayed an extraordinary devotion to his faith and attended religious services daily. Apart from using his computer programming skills to spread his faith he is also reported to have served the poor in Milan.
The Catholic Church said that his beatification highlighted “the significance of his witness, particularly for the younger generation, demonstrating that holiness is attainable even in our modern world”.
The relic will arrive at the Thane church at in the evening when the faithful will gather for a special religious service, or mass. An exhibition on Carlo's life will be on display in the church's auditorium.
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