At Wisconsin shrine, students encounter Lord through St. Carlo Acutis' example of holiness

(OSV News) -- Hundreds of high schoolers gathered Oct. 18 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Wisconsin to celebrate St. Carlo Youth Day, which this year included -- for the first time since the launch of the youth days at the shrine -- a relic of the young saint and bilingual programming.

Throughout the day, around 600 high school students attended conferences and recreational activities, participated in Eucharistic adoration and a procession, prayed the rosary, and attended Mass celebrated by Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay. The goal of the day was to
awaken hope and help the next generation grow in faith.

The shrine is the first and only Marian apparition site in the United States approved by the authority of the Catholic Church, making it a place of pilgrimage. The shrine has been organizing youth days, inspired by the example of the holiness of Carlo Acutis -- a British-born Italian boy who is the first millennial to be made a Catholic saint -- to give young people strength to navigate the world and "reach their true home."

"Saint Carlo Acutis inspires us all to do extraordinary things, even as ordinary people," said a post from the shrine's Instagram account. The post, paraphrasing the recorded words of the apparition, added that the students came to "praise the Lord and encounter Him where Our Lady appeared to Adele Brice (Brise) in 1859, telling her, 'Teach the children what they need for salvation.'"

With the firm goal of providing young people with the spiritual strength to "reach their true home" and to find inspiration in the program took place amid moments of deep reflection, praying the rosary and singing hymns.

John Paul Brissette, communications director for the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, told OSV News that although this was the third edition of this event, it was the first time the Carlo Youth Day had been held since Carlo was canonized Sept. 7 by Pope Leo XIV, which was undoubtedly a great cause for joy and celebration.

Brissette explained that, to ensure the inclusion of Spanish-speaking youth, who last year represented almost 40% of the participants, this year's activities were conducted in a bilingual format.

One of the most moving moments of the St. Carlo Youth Day/Jornada Juvenil para el Santo Carlo was experienced by those present who came to see the first-class relic of the "first millennial saint."

"Last week, a priest walked into the shrine and said that he knew we were having this event, and he was in Rome for the canonization. He had met Carlo's mom, who had given him a relic," Brissette said.

"She gave him two first-class relics, then he came and made a pilgrimage to the shrine just last week and presented us with a piece of Carlo's hair from Carlo's mother. So, (it) was very awesome to have it just in time," he said.

OSV spoke with Father Anthony Stephens, rector of the Champion shrine, about how St. Carlo Acutis is a model and inspiration for young people today.

"He is important because he is someone who points us to Jesus," said Father Stephens, adding that Carlo "is not someone who lived 300 years ago, but died in 2006, in our lifetime."

"He enjoyed some of the same things that the youth enjoy today. But he knew how to look at entertainment and fashion through the lens of Jesus," said the priest, who noted that he was a young man who "liked video games and was a computer programmer. He was very adept."

For the priest, "it shows that God is still at work in the midst of his people in the church and he wants us all to be saints. ... It's possible for young people to be saints."

Arnol Castellanos Pérez, a Hispanic student and a parishioner at St. Peter and Paul Parish in Green Bay, said that by participating in this event, he hopes to "be an inspiration to bring others to Christ."

The student said that thanks to Acutis' example, he was encouraged to grow in his faith and sees in his testimony the reflection of a young man who, despite his illness, lived a happy life thanks to his faith and his love for the Eucharist.

"Another way he encourages me in my faith is the way he lived his life," said Castellanos Pérez in a video testimony shared by OSV News, adding that Carlo "changed his life through small things."

Mari Pablo, a well-known Catholic influencer and creator of the bilingual ministry "In His Heart/En Su Corazón," told OSV News that day's theme "Hope Awakens" permeated the conversations with the teens.

"We are called to have hope to grow in that virtue, especially in this world with different problems, anxiety, different things that young people experience and we also experience. Hope is not always easy," she said.

The answer is found when we put our hope in God, Pablo added.

According to her, it is necessary for young people to recognize suffering but also to trust that God is present in the midst of it, accompanying them, and that even difficult moments can bring us closer to his love.

"We are called to be saints. We are in this world, but we are not created for this world, and each of us has a longing in our hearts that can only be filled by God," she said.