The remarks of Bishop Mark Davies came during a homily in the presence of a relic of the heart of Blessed Carlo Acutis, an Italian boy who will next year be canonised as the “first millennial saint”.
In a homily preached during Mass at St Anthony’s Church of Wythenshawe, Manchester, the bishop said all people are called to be saints like Blessed Carlo.
Bishop Davies said: “Yet not a few young people are told diabolically today that a life so given for the love of Christ is a wasted life.
“It is an objection made to those who come forward to offer their lives in the priesthood or the consecrated life; and those called to the enduring love of marriage and family, told they are ‘losing their freedom’,” the Bishop said.
“Yet, we know, a human life is only wasted and lost insofar as we fail to discover the Love for which we were made.
“As Pope Benedict declared, ‘whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man’. For humanity cannot live without love, divine love.
“This led Pope Francis to reflect the only real tragedy in a human life is that we fail to become a saint, to reach the perfection of love like the 15-year-old Carlo Acutis.
“Our lives are truly wasted if you and I fail to strive for this same goal in the time that has been given us.”
The Mass on Saturday 21 September was celebrated in the crowded Church of St Anthony on the second of four days of public prayer, veneration and devotion in the presence of the relic.
Blessed Carlo, who was born in London to Italian parents, died from leukaemia in 2006 at the age of 15.
He is often referred to as “God’s influencer” because he dedicated himself to spreading devotion of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist through social media and a website he designed himself.
His relic, which is kept in an ornate reliquary, had attracted more than 2,000 pilgrims by Saturday.
With large numbers also expected through Sunday and Monday, 22-23 September, it is estimated that more than 5,000 people will make the pilgrimage to the relics.
Strikingly, the visits have been accompanied by a surge in numbers of people coming forward for confessions, some after decades. At least four priests have been hearing confessions almost “non-stop” since the pilgrimages began.
St Anthony’s Church is open to all people who have booked a time to prayer before the relic through an Eventbrite link on the website of the Diocese of Shrewsbury.
A relic is either part of the physical remains of a holy person after his or her death, or an object which has been in contact with his or her body.
In his homily, Bishop Davies reflected on how Blessed Carlo had discovered “the Heart of Jesus in the silence of the Eucharist; in the daily offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass; in commitment to personal prayer; in the frequent Confession of his sins as the path to holiness; and in love for Mary, the Mother of Christ and our Mother”.
He added: “And this Love overflowed from his heart in a desire to share this same love, indeed, the great miracle of love, which is the Eucharist, with all his contemporaries, indeed with all the world via the internet.
“A love which overflowed in the ordinary duties and details of life in care of friends; in standing up to bullies; and in his practical concern for the poor. A love which expanded his heart, we might say, through those last days in the experience of pain and debility leading to the final day in October 2006 as he offered his suffering for the Pope and the Church – that is for us.”
Blessed Carlo was born in London on 3 May 1991 and moved to Italy with his parents when he was three months old. From a very young age, Carlo showed a devotion to Jesus Christ, especially in the Most Holy Eucharist.
He was known for his devotion to Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions, which he catalogued on a website he designed.
Carlo developed untreatable leukaemia and died in Monza, Italy, at the age of 15 in 2006. He was beatified in 2020 after the inexplicable healing of a Brazilian child was attributed to his intercession.
His biographer has described him as “a model for all young people, showing that holiness is accessible and can be lived fully even in our contemporary world”, partly because he dressed and acted like an average teenager, wearing jeans and trainers, and enjoying video games, computing and football.
Carlo’s outlook was simple and profound: “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan.”
In July, Pope Francis approved a second miracle at Blessed Carlo’s intercession that will permit his canonisation as the “the first millennial saint”, a reference to those born between 1981 and 1996.
Blessed Carlo Acutis will likely be proclaimed a Saint during the 2025 Jubilee, according to the Vatican, which has described him as “welcoming and caring towards the poorest, and he helped the homeless, the needy, and immigrants with the money he saved from his weekly allowance”.