Americans going to Acutis canonization inspired by relatable teen's love for Eucharist

(OSV News) -- Two years ago, Maximilian Glamuzina first learned about Blessed Carlo Acutis during a school Mass, when his pastor preached about the teenager's life and model of holiness. Glamuzina, now 14, was intrigued: The 15-year-old from Milan who died of leukemia in 2006 felt relatable -- a normal kid who played video games and learned computer coding, but also loved the Eucharist and befriended the poor. Glamuzina's devotion to Carlo grew.

"I look up to him a lot," he said, noting he is particularly inspired by Carlo's use of technology to glorify God, especially his website dedicated to Eucharistic miracles. The site has since been adapted into a physical exhibition and circled the world.

Now Glamuzina is traveling to Rome with his parents and two siblings for Carlo's April 27 canonization on a pilgrimage organized by his pastor, Father Leon Biernat, alongside other members of St. Gregory the Great Parish in Williamsville, New York, a Buffalo suburb.

The Glamuzinas are among the multitude of Americans planning to attend the canonization of the church's first "millennial" saint. The canonization Mass, scheduled to be held in St. Peter's Square, coincides with Divine Mercy Sunday and the 2025 Holy Year's Jubilee of Teenagers April 25-27.

"From the minute it was announced last fall we have received hundreds of emails asking for information," Sister Maria Juan Anderson, a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, who works in Rome with the Bishops' Office for U.S. Visitors to the Vatican, told OSV News by email. "Carlo is beloved!"

In addition to individuals planning their own trips and parishes, like St. Gregory the Great, that have organized group travel, at least two U.S. dioceses -- the archdioceses of Miami and Philadelphia -- are sponsoring pilgrimages for the canonization.

Around six groups are coordinating their trips through JMJ Youth Pilgrimages, a Phoenix-based Catholic travel company focused on pilgrimages for young adults, and founder Steve Kerekes thinks that there could have easily been more given different conditions.

"There's a tremendous amount of interest" in Carlo's canonization, he said, but the event occurring during the school year -- plus the short time elapse between the November announcement and the event date -- may have discouraged some young adults from going.

JMJ Youth Pilgrimages is also planning a pilgrimage for individuals not connected to other groups, with "around 30 or 40" signed up.

"Young people in particular -- youth and young adults -- look to him to inspire a life of heroic virtue, because this is something truly worth living and dying for," Kerekes said of Carlo. "So if the church is asking young people to just be a little better, a little nicer, we're going to lose everybody. What we really need is people who are inspired to heroic virtue. And Carlo was an example of that, and anyone can attain it."

Travelers with JMJ Youth Pilgrimages can expect their trips to center on the Eucharist because of Carlo's deep devotion to the Real Presence, while also including key aspects of the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, such as visiting Rome's four public Holy Doors.

Sally Lanza, 57, is going to the canonization with members of her parish, St. Katharine Drexel in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where she works as an administrative assistant. She first learned of Carlo when his relics visited her parish a few years ago while on a national tour.

"There was just something that just struck me when I was reading about his story, just being a youth and being on fire for God, especially in the Eucharist," she said. "I was excited because of the hope for youth to come back to Christ and to really see the power that we have here in the Catholic Church by having the Real Presence."

Since encountering Carlo, Lanza -- the mother of two teenage daughters -- routinely asks for his prayers. She especially sees a need for his example of virtuous technology use, especially in overcoming widespread technology addiction and the resulting loss of personal connection.

"It would just be nice to be able to put the technology down, and so I'm just asking periodically for his intercession to help that, to make that real," she said.

Belinda Reina-Somoza, a theology teacher at St. Brendan High School in Miami, is taking seven high school senior girls on pilgrimage to Carlo's canonization. The school has been following Carlo's canonization process, she said, and her pilgrims are reading a book about him in preparation for their trip.

"I hope that the once-in-a-lifetime experience of the canonization of Carlo Acutis brings them closer to the Eucharist, which in the words of Acutis is 'the highway to heaven,'" she told OSV News.

Among the girls traveling with her is Lucia Corbea, who said she admires Carlo's "commitment to serving God by using modern technology to spread the Gospel."

"I expect to gain a deeper understanding of the roots of my faith, as well as growing from the experience of the pilgrimage as a whole, since we are taking many prayer intentions with us," she said.

Father Mike Palmer, a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross from Detroit ordained in 2017 and a U.S. Army chaplain ministering at a base in Baumholder, Germany, is leveraging his proximity to Italy to attend the canonization.

"He's been such a role model for so many people of the young generation," he said of Carlo. "And also as a priest, it's a good reminder to me of this wonderful responsibility God's given to me, to celebrate the holy sacrifice, the Mass, to give the body and blood (of Jesus Christ) to my own flock."

Violet Olszyk is taking her 11-year-old son, Nicky, to the canonization -- a trip that her family has made sacrifices to afford, but one she felt called to make. Olszyk, nearly 34 years old and from Springfield, Oregon, is just 12 days older than Carlo, which she discovered after realizing, through pictures, that they had many of the same interests, and even possessions, as kids.

"I feel like we would have been friends if I had been in Italy, or he'd been in the United States," she told OSV News.

As she has gotten to know Carlo, he has become a friend, she said.

"I know it sounds super cheesy, but it's true," she said. "Having someone born just two weeks after you and they're in heaven, you're like, 'OK, that's where I want to go.' We're walking this journey at kind of the same time. So I'm going to see how you (Carlo) did it, and ... even if I fall short of it just because of my state of life, at least I know where my eyes are headed."

As a wife and mother of five who is expecting her sixth child, Olszyk knows she cannot easily dedicate the kind of time Carlo did to daily prayer. But she sees his influence in her family culture, and especially on Nicky. In addition to attending the canonization, the Olszyks will visit several sites in Italy where Eucharistic miracles occurred.

"I'm really hoping ... this is the moment where he really takes his faith as his own," she said of Nicky on their pilgrimage.

Olszyk, who attends Nativity of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church in Springfield, also has a sense that Carlo's canonization will make a difference far beyond her family and those who attend the event.

"This feels like a special moment," she said. "I can't even really explain it, but the canonization feels like it's going to be a pivotal moment in church history. ... This feels like one of those really important canonizations, something that's going to be important for the church and the church's future. So that was another reason I wanted to be there, because it just felt like something historical."