The much-anticipated first canonizations of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate took place over the weekend – and, regardless of the Pro-Life Gen’s diverse Christian persuasions, the new saints are RIGHT up our alley. 

First and foremost, the two men, Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati, loved Jesus with all their hearts. But the most striking aspect of these canonizations (and perhaps the reason why 80,000 people flooded St. Peter’s Square for it) is that these two were young.   

Carlo Acutis, an Italian teen who passed away in 2006 from an aggressive cancer, and whose spring canonization was postponed due to the passing of Pope Francis in April, has been heralded as “The First Millennial Saint” and “God’s Influencer.” 

Pier Giorgio Frassati, another Italian youth, passed away in 1925 from polio at the age of 24 and is known for his outdoorsmanship and motto, “Verso l’alto!” (“To the heights!”).  

In the Roman Catholic Church, the canonization of a saint, simply put, is the assertion that the person in question is united with God in heaven and is believed to be interceding for those on Earth. The Church investigates all “causes” for sainthood, including confirming that at least two inexplicable miracles occurred following prayer through the potential saint.  

For example, one of the miracles attributed to Carlo’s intercession is the unexplained healing of a Costa Rican woman, Valeria Valverde, who suffered a severe head injury while bicycling in Italy and whose mother visited Carlo’s tomb to ask his intercession for healing (which miraculously occurred 10 days later). 

Pope Leo addressed the nearly one hundred thousand gathered in-person on Sunday, many of whom were themselves quite young, saying:  

[Jesus] calls us to abandon ourselves without hesitation to the adventure that he offers us […] Many young people, over the centuries, have had to face this crossroad in their lives. […] Sometimes we portray [the saints] as great figures, forgetting that for them it all began when, while still young, they said “yes” to God and gave themselves to Him completely, keeping nothing for themselves. 

The Pro-Life Generation, made up of so many millennials, Gen Z, and now even Gen Alpha, is no stranger to encountering such “crossroads,” often swimming against the tide and constantly needing to give our sacrificial “yes” in our human rights battle to end abortion. It’s easy, some days, to feel discouraged, hopeless, or that we’re too young to make a difference.   

The buzz-worthy canonizations of not just one, but TWO, young people this weekend is a welcome bolster for the start of this school year, during which many pro-life students will face backlash and other challenges to our work to defend God’s most vulnerable. We hope the examples of St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati will inspire the Pro-Life Gen throughout the school year to stand firm in their work and stand boldly for Life!  

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