The Christophers: Carlo Acutis Fostered Community

Garan Santicola for The Christophers

Carlo Acutis was “online to get people offline,” says Tim Moriarty, director of the film “Roadmap to Reality: Carlo Acutis and Our Digital Age,” opening in theaters nationwide April 27-29. In a webinar on technology and the Catholic faith held at the end of last year and sponsored by the National Eucharistic Revival, Moriarity called Acutis “a saint for our times…the saint we need.”

With Acutis’ canonization set for April 27 in Rome’s Saint Peter’s Square, the Italian millennial who died of leukemia in 2006 at just fifteen years of age points the way to the perspective we should have on technology because his example reminds us that we should not be subjugated or addicted to it but rather utilize it to accomplish some good in the world. Brett Robinson, associate professor of practice at Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute, joined Moriarty as cohost of the technology and faith webinar and shared the insight that Catholics should always be asking the question about technology, “What will this do for my community?”

Robinson is an advocate of using technology to bring people together in person as much as possible, and he points to Acutis as a perfect example of someone who put technology to use for just that purpose. Through his still-existing website about Eucharistic miracles, Carlo Acutis has left behind a tool that continues to inspire people to rediscover the miracle of the Mass and come together in community to worship Christ.

Acutis’ actions remind us that the miracle of the Eucharist is the perfect starting point for a way of life that fosters community, and Robinson has some important advice for cultivating habits to facilitate that way of life. Based on information gathered from his Notre Dame students, he’s put together key pointers for keeping technology in its proper place. An advocate of slowing things down to detach from technology, Robinson advises getting outside to spend time in nature and prioritizing human connections in face-to-face encounters to foster robust conversation where we make a point of celebrating each other’s interests rather than the showcase of achievements characteristic of social media.

In a piece written for the National Catholic Register on the National Eucharistic Revival’s webinar on technology and the Catholic faith, Jonah McKeown highlights Robinson’s call for Christians to utilize technology with an intentionality that helps contextualize our experiences so we can better understand the world around us, always pointing back to our basic need for connection to God and others. Distilling Robinson’s diagnosis of the worst problems posed by technology, McKeown writes, “Because society has become so dependent on technology, many people believe there is no choice but to accept the ‘collateral damage’ of a teen mental health crisis driven by social media, the scourge of pornography, and a decay of public discourse online.”

And it’s here that Acutis’ example looms so large because he points us back to the Eucharist as the source from which all peace and satisfaction in relationship flows and the source to heal the wounds formed by our modern technological crisis. It seems fitting, therefore, that his canonization should be set within our current Jubilee Year of Hope and on Divine Mercy Sunday, when we honor the exquisite grace of God’s mercy that flows out of Christ’s sacrifice and out of every Eucharistic sacrifice. By highlighting the power of that sacrifice, Carlo Acutis points us to the cure for what ails our society today and is most certainly a saint for our times.

---

For free copies of the Christopher News Note ANSWERING GOD’S CALL, write: The Christophers, 264 West 40th Street, Room 603, New York, NY 10018; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org