Carlo Acutis one step away from becoming Catholic Church's first millennial saint

The Catholic Church is running out of ideas.

This is dumb

This is dumb

He'll be the cutest saint.

Do they need a model for the nude statue? I might be able to hook them up.

He could work miracles with a limp dick.

On on a bit of a tangent, Because this fellow seemed too young to have married, but it is very rare for a married couple or even a married person, to achieve sainthood.

I have a crushed ping-pong ball....

Sainthood -The ultimate fetish...

So a Brazilian kid prayed to a dead computer nerd and his pancreas was healed?

What nonsense. All of it.

Sorry about the dead kid but geez Catholics are so fucking weird.

It's tragic that such a sweet empathetic boy would die so young. While it's admirable that they want to keep his memory going, I don't see how that qualifies him for sainthood.

ALL religions are weird, R12. They teach you that you'll rule over your own planet, or that alien souls inhabit your body. They scare you with demons and hellfire. They try to control every aspect of your life from what you eat to whom you fuck. And how. I fail to understand this need for medieval control over our lives.

I'm the first gay saint.

Saint Twinkus of Pokemonae.

[quote] I'm the first gay saint. —St. Sebastian

They DE-voured him!

So precious. Was he gay?

Would being gay disqualify him ?

Now, he just needs one more verified miracle to qualify for sainthood.

This is so gross. They exhumed his body, 'repaired' it and now exhibit it.

The article is in German, but nevermind, just look at the pic. Disgusting. I wonder whether that lad would've been with this nonsense.

*would've been OK with this nonsense

Jesus, God in heaven, why’d you have to kill such hot snatch?

I think St. Sebastian was the first martyr of any sexual orientation.

Prospective "saints" have to be dug up, as the "incorruptibility" of the body is one of the signs of sainthood. Don't ask me why...

How do his parents and family feel about him being dug up and put on display??

I didn't know about him before, but starting tonight, I'm going to start praying to him.

R25, it's mentioned in the article I posted upthread that his mother is perfectly fine with it since now that his body is being exhibited, "believers can visit and worship" him.

Here's an English-language piece -with additional pictures, including his mother standing before the body. The article acknowledges that the body, in fact, decayed, and work was done to make it presentable.

Morbid

[quote] R25: Prospective "saints" have to be dug up, as the "incorruptibility" of the body is one of the signs of sainthood. Don't ask me why...

Some Saints have incorruptible bodies, but that’s not a necessity for sainthood. It used to be that two miracles were a requirement; but I think that changed within the last 20 years or so, that only one miracle is required.

The purpose of sainthood is to identify individuals whose lives were examples for the living to follow. Miracles that can be attributed to them serve as proof of God’s recognition of their exemplary life.

I only learned fairly recently that every Catholic Church has a religious relic entombed within it’s foundation. In many cases,min the older churches, the location of the relic is forgotten.

Btw, Saints aren’t really “worshipped”, they are “venerated”.

[Quote] ALL religions are weird, [R12].

They have weirdnesses particular to each of them. Reward in heaven for Christians especially for Calvinist Protestants. Canonization for Catholics. The self serving Chosen delusion for Jews. Reincarnation for Hindus. 72 celestial virgins for Muslims.

What else?

^Nirvana for Buddhists

The body is wearing Nike shoes. That's gotta be the sickest case of product placement I've ever seen.

Those shoes are a second class relic.

He is obviously doing great things in Heaven, along with Saint John Paul II.

I suppose it's one way to be an Influencer, even when dead.

IIRC, this is the skeletal remains of a Saint on display in a Church near the forum in Rome. I don’t think skeletal remains would be considered as ‘incorruptible”.

It many places, Rome has Churches literally built next to each other. Each Bishop is also custodian of a Church in Rome. That’s were disgraced Boston Bishop Bernard Law has taken up residence, in his Boston enclave.

I love the practice in deeply Catholic countries where Brooke reflexively bless themselves each time they pass a Church.

.

Ste Catherine Labouré, Chapelle de la Médaille Miraculeuse, Rue du Bac, Paris.

They note her face and hands are covered in wax.

When Lincoln died, embalming was a new technique. Since they were to take his body on a long trip from DC to Illinois, with stops along the way, including NYC, they pumped his body full with embalming fluid.

In the subsequent years, there were many attempts to steal the late President’s body. Finally, they decided to bury the casket within cement so that it could not be stolen. But first, they had to open the casket to make sure his body was still in there. This was years after he died, but his body showed little decomposition, due to the embalming fluid.

Dear me -I'm such a Trekkie that I see the poor boy's name and all I can think is Locutus of Borg...

I’ve read that Lenin’s body, which was on display, was falling apart by the 1990s and required a lot of makeup to mask the decay.

Lenin's body is probably all wax and bones by now. All those "incorruptible" bodies would resemble Egyptian mummies without all the beauty retouches and wax masks they're all wearing.

Mao’s is in a cooler

It must really be a miracle, since how does one survive pancreatic cancer? It's certain death.

Carlo seemed to be a good, loving soul when he was alive.

Doesn’t the fact that he died at age 15 from cancer kind of show that [italic]god didn’t like him??

I visited Mao's body back in the 80s, and it looked decidedly like a wax effigy...

Those photos of the preserved dead people are giving me the heebie jeebies. Keeping a carcass on display for decades (or centuries) is totally morbid and macabre. Bodies are designed to decay, biologically. That's nature, baby.

BTW....How is any of this in any way related to Jesus? Isn't Christianity about Jesus, and ONLY Jesus? You know...THE CHRIST?

Seriously, what is WITH you Catholics?!?! Setting the thousands of pedophile priests to one side for just a moment -- You do know that from the outside looking in, Catholicism looks overly-complicated, insanely dark, heretically hierarchical, sadistically punishing, terrifyingly guilt-inducing, utterly fake, scary, maudlin, and generally over the top...right?

That's all forms of Christianity, R48.

[quote]Those photos of the preserved dead people are giving me the heebie jeebies.

R48, It might not be the heebie jeebies so much as the willies. It could even be the fidgets or the collywobbles. Of course, the jim-jams and the screaming meemies can't be ruled out entirely, either. Now, if it's the howling fantods, I'd be just a wee bit worried.

R46, two of the three of the children who saw the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, died as children, in the influenza pandemic. The third became a nun who lived until the 1990s, if I recall correctly.

God allowed his own son to be tortured and crucified. One should not be surprised that life is full of injustice and heartache. His kingdom is not of this world, but of the next. Suffering in this life, as horrible as it may be, is nothing compared to an eternity In paradise.

There is a Church in Rome that allegedly contains the chains used to bind St.Peter when he was captured. The Vatican Basilica is said to have been situated On the location that St. Peter was crucified. When I was there in the 1990s, I was told they had recently broken through a wall in the crypt below, and found another chamber with bones dating to the time of St. Peter, and they were investigating if these bones might be those of St. Peter himself.

There already is a Patron Saint of the Internet: St. Isidore of Seville. Are they going to push him aside just to cater to younger Christians?

Christianity was a novel religion when it was founded. It promised the vast majority of impoverished and enslaved people that they deserved an afterlife in Paradise. It wasn’t just for Kings, it was for all, equally, and where the wicked in life would get what they deserve in the after life. So, yes, there is a lot about death in Catholicism.

I thought there was like somewhere between a 30-50 year time period before one could become beatified?

R54, no. John Paul II was fast tracked to sainthood.

Generally speaking, for someone to become a Saint, there must be groundswell of popular demand by a group of people that the deceased deserved sainthood. When the demand is strong and long lasting, the Church will open an enquiry into whether or not to recognize the deceased as a Saint. There are scores of people who were beatified, but never elevated from there to sainthood.

Joan d’Arc was sainted in 1920, and she died in 1432. The delay may have been so as not to antagonize the English, since she let troops against them.

We all have our crosses to bear in this life in one form or another, but of course this life is a blip in comparison to eternity in Heaven.

[quote]R51 God allowed his own son to be tortured and crucified. One should not be surprised that life is full of injustice and heartache.

Because He is a sadist.

I'm glad I'm a protestant.

R57, that’s a simplistic accusation. The more you learn about Catholicism, the more sense it makes. And a lot of it does deal with death.

I love Jesus, whether we are talking conceptual or historical. I believe in that core message. I also love and study the raw core of Buddhism as well. It's unfortunate that, in both cases, human beings have added layers and layers of accretion on top of the amazing, life-affirming, basic core messages of each "teache,r" so that the result is something vastly more complicated and perverse than what either teacher was attempting to impart.

For instance, Buddha never spoke of a heaven. He said that is very distracting to want to know about the afterlife, because it takes you out of present-moment awareness. It's a form of craving. The Ego needs the info, the ego wants to know. Yet in the end it's speculation. Mental masturbation. He encouraged people to drop all of that speculation -- that ego hunger that drives the mind to conceptualize, anticipate, and predict -- and just Be Here Now.

And then schools of Buddhism popped up everywhere, suddenly there are all these levels of heaven and hell! For Buddha, though, hell is only the suffering caused by attachment to maya (ever-changing external events) and the desire the attempt to control and clutch and preserve that which is ever-changing. The Buddha would laugh hysterically at the mess humans have made of his simple, practical, wise teachings.

Likewise, Jesus said the following: "Love thy brother as thyself." (similar to Buddha teaching of "metta" -- love and compassion for all of mankind) "And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time." (The caring, unyielding, benevolent Christ vs the wrathful, smiting God of the Old Testament) "Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself." (Buddha-esque teaching of being in the present moment)

The perverse version of Christianity admonishes people to live in constant fear of being cast out of God's kingdom. It says "YES be anxious about tomorrow, you might be going to HELL...the Armageddon is nigh." It says "NO I am NOT with you always, until the end of time...I offer that to only a few of you that follow a ton of rules that I did not ask you to, but which were created by church and state to keep you under their control." "NO! Do NOT love your brother if they are gay, a different color, a different sex, different from you in ANY way. They have to follow not just Christianity, but YOUR brand of it. Otherwise, they are EVIL and will spend all of eternity in HELL." And you teach small vulnerable children these things.

Jesus would not be into any of it.

[quote] that’s a simplistic accusation. The more you learn about Catholicism, the more sense it makes. And a lot of it does deal with death.

It doesn't, it's just a fabricated mind control endeavor full of plot holes written at the last minute to unify other brainwashing entities under a single empire.

[quote] Internet and computer-mad youngster Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 aged 15, was placed on the path to sainthood after the Vatican ruled he had miraculously saved another boy's life.

This is the kind of absurdity we're talking about. This and historical Jesus being taken seriously by actual academia.

This is such a good show.

Really sums up the whole “gods” fallacy in an enjoyable, yet thoroughly informed, way.

The Catholic Church is the one and only true Christian church. All others are simply not legitimate. Not to mention all the non Christian religions which are essentially a joke.

Mental illness, all of it.

Elio

JPII is responsible for the changes allowing for fast-tracking, so it struck me as a bit gross when the church applied those rules to him. So immodest!

i was watching some videos of when he was alive and he seemed pretty gay to me.

In what way ?

Is this just an attempt by the Catholic Church to appeal to the younger generation?

Certain tribes in the Americas used to keep the dead bodies of revered family members,priests or chiefs on public display and would have conversations with them looking for advice along with giving them food,drink,plots of land,sex or even take them to use the bathroom. These practices were eventually put an end to by the Spanish conquistadors and the Catholic church.

R70, Yes.

R70, he might've been a nice lad indeed, but essentially yes, this is just a feeble attempt at sucking up to kids and teens.

If he coukd intercede with heaven to save someone’s life, why didn’t heaven spare his life? Or did he offer himself as a human sacrifice for the Brazilian boy?

[quote]The Catholic Church is running out of ideas.

Happened about the time of the Treaty of Nantes.

R74, he's said to have resigned to his fate after having received the final diagnosis, saying something along the lines of "I'm destined to die."

R644 The Greek Orthodox Church which was the original Christian preaching and doctrine directly from Christ's apostles may have a different opinion than yours. The Roman Catholic Church was the result of the 1054 schism when the followers rejected much of the original theological teaching and practices.

R77 - kindly advise as to what r644 is going to say. I can't wait that long.

Saint Isidore will NOT be REPLACED!

R77 R78 Sorry for my typo, I meant to say R64.

[quote] R31: Btw, Saints aren’t really “worshipped”, they are “venerated”.

I once heard a monk talking about the Saints and he noted that Protestants appreciate the experience of praying with their friends. Catholics who pray to saints are doing something similar. And it’s nice to think you have someone who understands your particular situation, (fisherman, carpenter, farmer, merchant, poverty stricken, etc.), an insider, who will advocate for you (with God). That’s why they have patron Saints of various occupations or other things.

St, Teresa of Avila acknowledged that many people pray to St Mary, as a mother figure, for intercession with God. Instead, she wrote, she prayed to St. Joseph, because what nice Jewish boy could refuse a request from his father? I thought that was funny.

No human being has an incorruptible body, it's not the nature of the flesh.

Except me, of course.

So, would he become the patron saint of social media? Is that why they are making a new one?

Can his family respectfully decline? I mean who would want this for their child?

So if churches need a relic of a saint for each one that’s built, his body will be eventually chopped up and buried in buildings all over the world? This Catholicism get more bizarre and cult like the more I hear about it.

R84, his family thinks it's great, including exhuming and exhibiting his body.

How much are they charging for his holy prepuce?

R85, a relic might simply be the rosary of a Saint. Also, many Churches have crypts underneath where people are buried. If you’ve been to Notre Dame in Paris or Westminster in London, you might see names engraved in the floor. Those mark burial chambers below.

Their are relics of the Cross in one church in practically every small town in Europe. Sometimes in two.

My mother’s brother had pneumonia & blood clots. He was in ICU for months, then a rehab place. Her other brother had cancer. When my first uncle was released from rehab, my mother swore he was saved by her & her sister because they prayed the rosary every day. But her brother with cancer died.

I said, “Mom, why didn’t you say the rosary for uncle John?”

“We did! Every day!”

“But he died. How come Uncle Bob lived because you said the rosary, but Uncle John died even though you said the rosary every day?”

“Because Uncle John had terminal disease but Uncle Bob didn’t.”

“So why pray to cure uncle john every day?”

“So he’ll have all those prayers that will shorten his time purgatory.”

They’ve got an excuse for anything.

I also asked “Ma, how come you believe everyone is a sinner , yet when someone dies you say ‘they’re in heaven now’ at their funerals. What about purgatory? Don’t sinners go to purgatory to repent before they can gain entry to heaven? Why don’t you say ‘She’s in purgatory now’ at someone’s funeral?”

“Because time is different on earth!”

My Mother was a little young lady Church lady before she became a little old Church lady. She went to Church twice on VJ Day. I would never challenge her belief system, because it brought her comfort.

My cleaning woman and her mother are devote Protestants. The Mom, who worked for me for a decade, used to call me randomly to say she was praying for me, which I appreciated.

They’re all inspirations for me to try to follow their example.

As an aside, Christianity was/is also about community. Bringing people together to eat together and support each other. I don’t think they’ve done a good job of that in more recent years.

R90, the most brilliant minds for almost 2000 years were devoted to the Church. It would not be easy for the average person to out-think them.

As for the dead and purgatory and so forth, let people have their faith if it comforts them. We all are going to die, it’s a requirement. You can’t pray that away.

I personally like the quote from Jesus: “There are many rooms in my Father’s house”. I have a suspicion that almost everyone goes to Heaven. And Hell is just a place where you are separated from God for eternity.

R77, you're an idiot, the Catholic church didn't start in 1054. The history of the Popes can be traced all the way back to St. Peter over 2000 years ago.

[quote]R91 Christianity was/is also about community. Bringing people together to eat together and support each other.

Communities of THEM... vs. us (aka “the darkness,” “the unrighteous infidels”.) You know very well the Bible orders Christians to shun those outside their church, and to live separate.

[italic] [bold]2 Corinthians 6:14–17 [/bold] “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”

R93 The thing is, you can create community in all kinds of ways. Like a town community center, or a central community house in co-housing developments. There are school communities, village greens, and centers for the elderly where they can meet and play board games and where volunteers come to enrich and support them. Neighborhoods, cafe events, festivals, dinner parties, and art openings create community, too.

There are so many ways to "bring people together to eat together and support each other" without adding in all the stuff about hell and damnation and guilt and sin and a bunch of other debatable talking points. In fact these types of communities have a name: it's called... "community."

Christianity was supposedly founded on "Love thy brother." But in practice it has been wielded in ways that are the exact opposite of that tenet, historically speaking. Yes, a local church has the potential to be a community resource -- but Christianity itself is an exclusive club. The belief in hell, in particular, creates so much fear and paranoia in gullible people, that it can train people to see "The Other" as wicked, sinful and unwelcome in their "House of God."

In other words, to the degree that Christianity brings people together, it also tears people apart.

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.“

[quote]The bishop explained that Acutis’ body was “reassembled with art and love.”

Plus some duct tape, spackle and Krylon.

[quote] Communities of THEM... vs. us (aka “the darkness,” “the unrighteous infidels”.) You know very well the Bible orders Christians to shun those outside their church, and to live separate.

I must have a different Bible. Mine tells me to follow the example of Jesus who interacted with outsiders and despised people such as lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, widows and orphans.

I picture a group of nuns with strips of newspaper and watered down Elmer’s doing papier-mâché.

R98 If that is the message you are getting from your Bible, then you are using it for it's intended purpose. Do any of the right-wing Christians or evangelicals follow the example of Jesus though? Maybe the hanging out with prostitutes part, but none of that other stuff.

Oh Jesus, you know you're old when there are saints younger than you.

The Catholic Church is bleeding younger followers -- a lot of religions are -- so I guess this is their attempt to engage a demographic that is tuning out of mass/their message.

Is Devil's Advocate still a position involved with the beatification and canonization process?

Oh. You mean your Bible has a lot of impossibly conflicting orders in it?

Yes, it does.

^^ re: r98

[quote] I must have a different Bible. Mine tells me to follow the example of Jesus who interacted with outsiders and despised people such as lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, widows and orphans.

St. Agatha? Move it along, toots. There's a new saint in town.

[quote]This is so gross. They exhumed his body, 'repaired' it and now exhibit it.

And to all those getting the creeps from this. You don't know what creepy is until you have seen the "preserved" bodies in Latin American churches. Some of them are not saints - just a burial rite and part of the family crypt. No picture can do them justice.

[quote]IIRC, this is the skeletal remains of a Saint on display in a Church near the forum in Rome. I don’t think skeletal remains would be considered as ‘incorruptible”.

Yes, Xavier, but did he have the odour of sanctity.

[quote]Doesn’t the fact that he died at age 15 from cancer kind of show that god didn’t like him??

Many saints die young - something about God calling them to heaven, or martyrdom.

[quote]You do know that from the outside looking in, Catholicism looks overly-complicated, insanely dark, heretically hierarchical, sadistically punishing, terrifyingly guilt-inducing, utterly fake, scary, maudlin, and generally over the top...right?

That's why it's fabulous. They gayest place in the world is the Vatican!

There’s an odour ? Ok!

[quote]There’s an odour ? Ok!

You stupid bitches have me ALL WRONG.

I like my saints martyred.

“ I think St. Sebastian was the first martyr of any sexual orientation.”

No, R24; that was Saint Stephen

r110 The eyeball gal is St. Lucy. I remember a statue of her in the back of my parish church, she was holding a plate with her gouged-out eyes on it. The used to have the most candles lit in front of her.

St. Agnes, patron saint of virgins hardly ever had any candles at all. Make of that what you will.

Who was the saint who licked lepers' sores?

She was a hard act to follow.

[quote] R103: Is Devil's Advocate still a position involved with the beatification and canonization process?

Yes. The DA does oppo research that can be used to discredit the person’s sainthood. It wouldn’t do for the Church to endorse someone as a Saint, to later learn that they were a cereal killer, or that they were fictional. That’s why St. Christopher got demoted. The Church decided there wasn’t enough historical evidence to prove that he actually existed.

The world learned a few decades ago that the The Church allowed testing that showed that the shroud of Turin was created in the Middle Ages. Their response was to that it should not dissuade people for being awed by its spiritual power to depict the crucified Christ.

And incidentally, a previous Pope got ahead of things and has already announced that the discovery of extraterrestrial life does not detract from from Church teaching, and so forth.

Also, remember that Saints aren’t sin-less. They just die in a state of grace and can be used by the living as examples to live by. I find myself constantly trying to live by the standards my own parents set for me, when they were at their best. That’s hard enough, and they’re not Saints.

Regarding saints, the faithful are to imitate their holiness not their lives. Many of them were certifiable and products of their time. It’s their closeness to God that makes them praiseworthy.

Saint Instagrammus

[quote] Many saints die young - something about God calling them to heaven, or martyrdom.

More like they haven't lived long enough to grow jaded and accumulate a surplus of devilish sins like all of the rest of us...

If y’all want a real hoot, look up St. Expedite! The saint that the RCC *HATES* to love.

I remember reading that the boy who witnessed the apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima, asked Mary if he would go to Heaven. She replied yes, but he must pray very hard.

He was just a child! I don’t know much about him, but it seemed that he didn’t have much time to rack-up sins!

R119, I know a future troublemaking sinner when I see one!

Children are depraved.

The Turin Shroud was investigated in the 14th century and declared a fake - they actually knew who did it. Modern analysis says the material is 14th century. Yet the Turin guardians (for whom it's a money-spinner of course) and deluded followers keep popping up trying to muddy the waters and sneak it back into relic-contention.

There's a really cool sculpture in Milan of St Bartholomew, who was flayed, standing there holding his skin.

Morbid and fucked up, but cool.

Oh, OP, I have doubt!

I thought this would be the first millennial saint

[cereal killer]

Oh, dear.

R136, that’s why Captain Crunch isn’t a Saint.

Let me try this again. I'm new to the quote formatting game.

[quote] cereal killer

Oh, dear!

[quote]Would being gay disqualify him ?

Apparently so.

We can already start praying to him. We don't have to wait until he is officially a saint.

I’ll only accept him as a saint when they make Naya a saint too. She survived working with Lea Michele and push her child to safety with her last dying breath, those seem like miracles to me.

The lady who created Potato Jesus deserves sainthood.

She gave it her all.

R132 I can't! That is amazing.

It was a botched “restoration “ that eventually drove tourist traffic to an obscure little Italian church to view the horror for themselves.

I've always wondered why no one has gone in to restore the restoration...

^^ sorry... Potato Jesus resides in Spain. Not Italy : (

I pray to Saint Anthony of Padua because he helps me find my misplaced or lost things.

Patron Saint of Xbox, Youtube, and masturbatory causes

r137 He's a piker, the real action is in selling houses. You can find me upside down, just look at the corners of the properties.

-St. Joseph

What are good sneaker socks that don’t slip off your foot?

Novena Prayer to Saint Ann for Spinsters and Confirmed Bachelors (never known to fail):

Saint Ann, Saint Ann, bring me a man as fast as you can!

(3 Aves, 1 Pater, 1 Gloria)

I pray to Saint Barbara that I don't blow off any fingers when I light fireworks on the 4th of July. She is the patron saint of fireworks, explosives, lightning, etc.

The poor dear. Her father kept her locked in a tower to protect her womanhood. She refused to marry a man of her father's choosing and confessed to having converted to Christianity. Enraged, her father took her to the local prefect, who ordered her to be tortured, culminating in her father beheading her. On his way back home, father was struck by lightning and reduced to ash.

Linky stinky. Let's try this one.

St Anne was the grandmother of Jesus

What was the Polish pope’s first miracle?

He turned the blind man lame.

^He completely cured a nun with Parkinson’s

Saint John Paul II was one of the greatest Popes and now is continuing to do great things in Heaven.