Blessed Carlo: A saint for millennials

Filipinos often shrug off, and sometimes even ridicule, the idea of an average person born in recent times being recognized as holy in the eyes of the Church. They will say it is a foolish idea, a brazen effort to place religion back to relevance, but will somehow ironically also venerate the saints of old in a cruel twist of hypocrisy.

My quarantined self has just watched the live stream of the beatification of Carlo Acutis, the late millennial who is credited with a miraculous intercession in the case of a sick boy in Brazil. I was jubilant because this was a future saint who played actual video games, and someone I can totally relate to, even more perhaps than other saints of the Roman Catholic Church.

The thought, however, pointed to a more somber realization: My generation, including all young people today, want some purpose in life. This is perhaps why there is a rise in student activism, a wave of advocacies led by young people, and the general pushback of the youth against the existing order.

In a way, Blessed Carlo Acutis serves as the literal symbol for what young people such as myself dream to aspire, even if it isn’t something that necessarily points to holiness: having a purpose in life.

Perhaps it may be as subtle as talking somebody out of suicide, or as ambitious as having your work published in the Inquirer.

In any case, our prodigy generation needs a dose of divine intercession.

Arnel Christopher Calatrava
Bacolod City