Young people have been urged to use their gadgets for spreading the Gospel, just as St Carlo Acutis did, and to stop being enslaved by what others say about them, focusing instead on holiness.
The call was made by Fr Marvin Lukyamuzi during Mass for the Feast of St Carlo Acutis, celebrated in the Basilica on Monday, 12 October.
Fr Lukyamuzi noted that the saint, who died at 15, owned the same gadgets any teenager might have, but kept them in check. “You see, if a person dies within 15 years, the world says they have died very young, but God made fruitfulness out of only 15 years of Carlo Acutis,” he said.
Fr Lukyamuzi reminded the faithful of Carlo’s conviction that the Eucharist is the “highway to heaven,” and shared two of the saint’s teachings. The first is that staying close to Jesus was the plan of Carlo’s whole life. The second is that sadness comes from looking at oneself, while happiness comes from looking toward God.
“If you are sad, remember that you are looking at yourself. If you want to be happy, put your eyes where God is, here in the beautiful Tabernacle,” he said. He also prayed that any obstacles keeping people from receiving the Eucharist may be removed.
According to Fr Lukyamuzi, the Eucharist made Carlo fully alive. It moved him to defend classmates who were bullied and to help the homeless, especially children, on the streets of Milan. He also recalled the story of Rajesh, a young Hindu man employed by Carlo’s family. Moved by Carlo’s radiant faith, Rajesh said he wanted to be like him, asked for baptism and became a Christian.
Carlo also placed his talents at the service of Christ. At about 14, he built a website, The Eucharistic Miracles of the World, a virtual museum cataloguing church-approved Eucharistic miracles country by country. It has since grown into a travelling exhibition.
Fr Lukyamuzi also recalled that at seven, Carlo begged his mother to let him receive Holy Communion, though he had not reached the canonical age. His diocesan bishop granted permission.
“What that little boy took to understand in just a little time, many of us grown-ups don’t understand: that Jesus is truly and substantially present in the species of bread and wine,” he said. “In every Mass celebration, and on all the altars of the churches of the world, Jesus becomes substantially present in the species of bread and wine. That little boy understood it. That’s why he said, ‘My highway to heaven is the Eucharist.’”
After Mass, the faithful proceeded to the Divine Mercy (Adoration) Chapel, where the relic of St Carlo Acutis was placed in its new home.
The Rector of Munyonyo Shrine received the relic on Saturday, 9 May 2026, and it was kept in the Relics Chapel for private veneration until the feast day. It now joins the relics of St Faustina, St John Paul II, St Maximilian Kolbe, St Josephine Bakhita and Blessed Michael Sopocko, among others, in the Adoration Chapel.
Born in London on 3 May 1991, Carlo is known as the first millennial to become a Catholic saint. He loved the Holy Eucharist, spent time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and researched and documented Eucharistic miracles online. He taught that the more the faithful receive the Eucharist, the more they become like Jesus and foretaste paradise on earth.
He died of leukaemia on 10 October 2006, aged 15, having already taught many young people about the Eucharist through his online work.
After the recognition of a miracle involving the healing of a Brazilian child, Pope Francis beatified him in Assisi on 10 October 2020. Pope Leo XIV canonised him on 7 September 2025, and he is now the Church’s first millennial saint and Patron of the Internet.
St Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
