Mass to mark the Canonisations of St Pier Giorgio Frassati and St Carlo Acutis
Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, City Quay
Sunday, September 7, 2025
Homily of Bishop Paul Dempsey
I went onto Instagram recently. I don’t know much about it, but I was hearing so much about it that I decided to find out more. I discovered that there is a lot of nonsense on it, but there is a lot of really good stuff there too. I also discovered how people can get caught up in endless scrolling as one video leads into another and another, something to keep an eye on in our lives.
One of the reels I discovered was called The Returned Catholic. On it was a clip of Carlo Acutis’s mother sharing how Carlo led her to the Eucharist. She outlined how at three years old when they were out walking, he always wanted to call into the church to be in front of the Tabernacle and the cross. He was a very advanced child – at four he was reading and writing. In a sense she felt he was running ahead of time. Then she said that Carlo was her saviour. She was a woman of little or no faith but through Carlo she came to understand the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. She went on to say that this was the most important discovery of her life. It was very profound to hear how Carlo brought his own mother to faith, to belief in Jesus’ real presence.
Of course this was at the heart of his mission, he wanted to bring people to Jesus. From this his bright mind turned to the internet, relatively new at the time. He created a website as a means of bringing people to the realisation that Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist. Because of this some have referred to him as the ‘Cyber Saint’. But he also put his faith in action. Again, I heard his mother say that from the age of nine, he would reach out to the homeless on the streets of Milan, bringing food, blankets and so on to them. He was conscious of their suffering and wanted to help.
No doubt Carlo had a deep and profound faith, a faith that was lived in service of others. But what I love about him was his normality. There are several clips of him growing up as a child. In them you see someone filled with fun and laughter. He had a great sense of humour, one might even say a bit of cheekiness – one clip shows him as child sticking out his tongue! He enjoyed his friendships and sport. Sometimes we might see saints as being distant from us, but St Carlo shows us that being a saint is about how we live our humanity: we find Christ in the ordinary.
His profound faith came to the fore when he faced his serious illness. It didn’t deter him. In fact, if anything, it strengthened his faith. He had no fear of facing death even at the young age of fifteen because, as his well-known saying brings home, he saw the Eucharist as his ‘highway to heaven’. Today we give thanks to God for his witness and example which draw us closer to Jesus in the Eucharist and not to be afraid of life’s challenges that we all have to face.
The other young man canonised today was St Pier Giorgio Frassati. He was twenty-four when he passed away from polio in 1925. He was from Turin and like St Carlo, he was a very active young man who was huge into mountaineering. At the age of seventeen he joined the St Vincent de Paul Society and spent much of his time in caring for the poor, the homeless and the sick.
On a photograph of what would be his last climb he wrote the phrase ‘Verso L’Alto’ meaning ‘to the heights’. This became the motto for Catholics inspired by him to strive for the summit of eternal life. He died at 24 of polio. His doctors suspected that he contracted it while caring for the sick. When St John Pul II beatified him in 1990, he described him as a man ‘entirely immersed in the mystery of God and totally dedicated to the constant service of his neighbour’.
Today marks such a historic day in the life of the Church. Two young men, 15 and 24, even though they lived decades apart, are canonised saints. Even though they were from different times, they held so much in common. Both led normal lives that we can identify with. Both were so close to the Lord, a relationship that was immersed in a life of prayer. Out of this they reached out in service to those in need around them. Both faced death at a young age but did so without fear, knowing Jesus was with them as they carried the cross and they knew they were going forward to something greater. In this they were very much in tune with the image Jesus gives us in the Gospel of the builder and the king. He tells us that in both cases they needed to plan for the future and see the bigger picture of what they were about. St Carlo and St Pier Giorgio were both very much aligned with this message – they were very much aware of the bigger picture far beyond this world.
Their faith in the presence of Jesus with them was at the heart of their lives. This comes out in similar quotes from each of them…
St Carlo said: ‘To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan.’
St Pier Giorgio said: ‘Jesus is with me, I have nothing to fear.’
May we be inspired by their witness and example, knowing that Jesus is with us. May we strengthen our relationship with him through prayer and the celebration of the Sacraments and through this reach out in service to our brothers and sisters in need.
St Carlo Acutis… Pray for us!
St Pier Giorgio Frassati… Pray for us!
