The Sept. 7 canonizations of Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati will be a crucial step in a decades-long effort to attract people to the Catholic faith through young, holy patrons.
“Their canonization confirms that holiness is not an abstract ideal but can manifest itself in contemporary ways, close to the sensibilities of young people, in the present and now … through friendship, study, family, the challenges of today, and even through illness faced with Christian hope,” said Leticia Arráez, a communications researcher at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
According to Arráez, the last 40 years have seen youth become “major protagonists” in shaping the Church’s identity and spearheading its evangelical mission throughout the world.
