Catholic men and women kneel down and pray inside the Antipolo Cathedral in the Philippines. / Credit: junpinzon/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Jul 6, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Vatican Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations Archbishop Paul Gallagher said the Holy See would encourage Catholics, particularly political leaders, in the Philippines to “listen to their pastors” regarding the latest divorce bill, which passed the country’s lower house of government in May.

At a press briefing held earlier this week, during his visit to the southeast Asian nation from July 1-5, Gallagher addressed the topic of the Absolute Divorce bill, which passed the Philippines’ House of Representatives on May 22 with 131 votes in favor of the bill. One hundred and nine members of the house voted against the bill and another 20 declined to vote.

According to CBCPNews, the official news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Gallagher said the teachings of the Catholic Church on marriage are “very clear and very well known” and that the CBCP and individual bishops of each diocese must be pastors who offer couples and families “the best approach” when it comes to overcoming marital problems and marriage breakdown.

“And at the pastoral level, the question is within the competence of the bishops’ conference of the Philippines and the individual bishops,” he said. “I would presume, because it is an important issue, that they will be discussing it. So we [the Holy See] will look forward to hearing from the bishops on this in a matter which is principally of their concern.”

Since May, Filipino bishops and priests have been active in addressing the issues seen as grounds for “absolute divorce” including violence, drug addiction, and alcoholism.

In an interview with The Manila Times, CBCP spokesperson and former supreme court justice Father Jerome Secillano said the official stand of the Filipino bishops is “to oppose the divorce bill in the country” and that more needs to be done by legislators to protect people by addressing the underlying issues leading to marriage breakdown.

“If there is physical violence then laws should be crafted in order to curb that physical violence that is happening in the marriage. We already have those laws; however, the reinforcement of these laws maybe is lacking,” Secillano said.

“That’s why they [legislators] try to invent more solutions, as they say, to these abusive relationships, but divorce is not a solution. It’s going to perpetuate the cycle of violence,” he added.

In an editorial reflecting on the divorce bill, Father Elias L. Ayuban Jr. wrote that every family has their “flaws and issues to work out” and that more work has to be done to prepare and accompany couples before and during marriage for the future of the Church.

“The crisis in the Church and the society begins with the crisis in the family caused by a confluence of factors, among them, for sure, is the breakdown of marriage,” he wrote. “Legalizing divorce will not minimize our woes as a Church and nation. It will only augment them. It may offer relief to struggling couples but will undeniably cause untold suffering to the young whom our Holy Father calls ‘the present and future of the Church.’”

The Absolute Divorce bill has yet to be discussed in the country’s Senate and must achieve a majority approval vote before it can become law. Though only six of the 24 senators have publicly backed the last version of the bill, it appears to be gaining more support.

Currently, the Philippines and the Vatican are the only two countries in the world where there is no divorce law.

A painting of St. Maria Goretti by Giuseppe Brovelli-Soffredini. / Credit: EWTN/YouTube/screen shot

CNA Staff, Jul 6, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

St. Maria Goretti, whose feast is celebrated on July 6, is one of the youngest canonized saints in the Catholic Church. Her powerful testimony of forgiveness shows how someone’s life can dramatically change after being forgiven. 

Goretti was born on Oct. 16, 1890, in Corinaldo, Italy, to poor tenant farmers and was the third of six children. She never learned to read or write and received her first Communion much later than other children her age; however, she had a very strong faith. 

When Goretti was 9, her father died of malaria. This forced her mother to take his place working in the fields and left Maria taking care of the household and her younger siblings. Goretti never complained and, despite the hardships, remained joyful. 

During her many trips to sell eggs and buy supplies for her family at the nearby village, Goretti would stop to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Graces. Seeing as her family was too poor to pay for Masses in her father’s memory, she would instead pray the five mysteries of the rosary for the repose of her father’s soul. 

Not only did Goretti have to tend to her own family, but she also had to cook and clean for her next-door neighbors — Giovanni Serenelli and his 20-year-old son, Alessandro Serenelli. It was at this time that the younger Serenelli began to develop an impure attraction toward Maria and would often make rude and inappropriate comments to her. 

On July 5, 1902, Serenelli grabbed Goretti and attempted to sexually assault her. “No! It is a sin, God does not wish it,” young Maria reportedly said to her attacker. Filled with anger, Alessandro Serenelli stabbed Goretti 14 times.

When Goretti’s family returned home, they found her lying in a pool of blood on the floor. She was rushed to the hospital where she underwent surgery without anesthesia. She died on July 6 but before passing, forgave her attacker, saying: “Yes, for the love of Jesus I forgive him and I want him to be with me in paradise.”

Serenelli was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. In his 11th year of incarceration, he had a vision of Goretti where she appeared to him, dressed in white, gathering lilies from a garden. She then turned and began to hand each lily to Serenelli. Each lily he took transformed into a white flame. This dream left a lasting impact on him. 

When he was released 27 years later, he immediately went to Goretti’s mother and begged her for forgiveness. She said: “If my daughter can forgive him, who am I to withhold forgiveness?”

Goretti was canonized on June 24, 1950, by Pope Pius XII with both her mother and Serenelli present. 

Serenelli went on to become a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, where he lived in a monastery and worked as its gardener until his death. 

Today Goretti is the patron saint of rape victims, chastity, teenage girls, youth, poverty, purity, and forgiveness.

Kansas State Capitol building in Topeka. / Credit: Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 5, 2024 / 18:40 pm (CNA).

The Kansas Supreme Court struck down two abortion-related laws on Friday: one that banned dilation and evacuation abortions and another detailing safety regulations for abortion clinics.

The court overturned a 2015 ban of dilation and evacuation, or “D&E,” abortion, a procedure that is banned in more than 30 states. Also known as dismemberment abortions, this procedure is typically done in the second trimester of pregnancy and results in the dismemberment of an unborn child and the crushing of his or her skull.

The court also struck down a 2011 law that detailed safety regulations and licensing requirements for facilities that provided second- or third-trimester abortions, or more than four first-trimester abortions in a month. The Kansas Supreme Court found that this infringed on a women’s right to bodily autonomy. 

The rulings were made 5-1 with one judge abstaining. The two laws had already been temporarily paused due to the lawsuits.

In 2019, the Kansas Supreme Court concluded that the Kansas Constitution grants a “natural right of personal autonomy, which includes the right to control one’s own body,” the judges wrote in the decision, noting that this can include “whether to continue a pregnancy.”

The judges further noted that “the state is prohibited from restricting that right unless it can show it is doing so to further a compelling government interest.”

“A graphic description of the D&E procedure referred to in S.B. 95 is not necessary to resolving the legal issues before us,” the judges noted in their decision.

Dissenting Justice Caleb Stegall criticized the decision, saying that “it fundamentally alters the structure of our government to magnify the power of the state” and “paints the interest in unborn life championed by millions of Kansans as rooted in an ugly prejudice.”

The case was sent to a district court that found there were no “reasonable” alternatives to dismemberment abortion, and the state Supreme Court upheld that decision. 

“Adding insult to injury, extremely liberal judges of the Kansas Supreme Court have now overturned basic health and safety standards for abortion facilities when one of the state’s largest abortion franchises recently operated for an unknown period of time with no medical oversight,” Danielle Underwood, Kansans for Life director of communications, said in a July 5 statement. 

“It hurts to say ‘We told you so’ to the many Kansans who were misled by the abortion industry’s assurances that it would still be ‘heavily regulated’ in our state if voters rejected the 2022 amendment,” she added.

Kansas currently allows abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy and requires minors to have written consent to have abortions. The state also has ongoing lawsuits in lower courts that are challenging restrictions on medication abortions.

Kansas is an abortion destination for states that protect unborn lives, such as Oklahoma and Texas. Abortions in Kansas in 2023 increased by 152% since 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

The Progress Pride flag is shown above (center flag) at a White House "Pride" celebration on June 10, 2023. / The White House, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 5, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is backing away from its previous support of sex-change surgeries for minors who identify as transgender but is maintaining its support for other medical interventions to facilitate gender transitions for those under the age of 18.

In a statement first reported by The 19th News this week, a White House spokesperson said the administration believes that gender-transition surgeries “should be limited to adults.” However, the statement emphasized that the administration still supports other interventions to facilitate gender transitions for minors without specifying what it supports.

A study published in August 2023 estimated that patients aged 12 through 18 accounted for nearly 8% of transgender surgeries between 2016 and 2020 in the United States — about 3,678 surgeries in total. This included more than 3,200 chest surgeries and more than 400 genital surgeries to facilitate a sex change. It is legal to perform these surgeries on minors in more than half of the states in the country.

The statement added, however, that the administration continues “to support gender-affirming care for minors, which represents a continuum of care, and respect the role of parents, families, and doctors in these decisions,” without getting specific.

Other forms of medical interventions used to facilitate gender transitions for minors include puberty-blocking drugs, which prevent the body from going through its natural developments during puberty, and hormone therapy, which increases estrogen and reduces testosterone in boys and increases testosterone and reduces estrogen in girls. This is also legal in more than half of the states in the country.

The shift comes about one week after court documents revealed that the Biden administration’s assistant secretary for Health and Human Services, Adm. Rachel Levine, pressured at least one health care association to remove proposed guidelines that would have discouraged doctors from providing sex-change drugs and surgeries to young children.

According to emails included in the court documents, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) removed its age-based recommendations after Levine — who identifies as transgender — asked them to eliminate those suggestions. Internal emails from WPATH also revealed that the association does not have evidence to support the efficacy of gender transitions for minors: “We are painfully aware of the gaps in the literature and the kinds of research that are needed to support our recommendations.”

Prior to the recent White House statements, the administration has consistently criticized state laws that prohibit doctors from performing sex-change surgeries on minors. 

In 2022, a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Justice to states enacting these restrictions claimed that the laws were discriminatory toward people who identify as transgender and might violate the equal protection clause. That same year, Biden also signed executive orders meant to expand access to transgender medical interventions for minors. In a statement, the White House referred to lawmakers who imposed the restrictions as “bullies targeting LGBTQI+ people.” 

The administration’s shift has angered some of its allies, such as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which supports the legality of sex-change surgeries for minors.

“The Biden administration is flat wrong on this,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said. “It’s wrong on the science and wrong on the substance. It’s also inconsistent with other steps the administration has taken to support transgender youth.”

The administration’s shift also did not appease critics on the political right. 

“They want it to sound like they oppose procedures that perhaps 80% of the public also opposes,” Jay Richards, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, said in a post on X. 

“At the same time they spent the last three and a half years doing what the rabid gender ideologues demand, and that includes gender surgery on minors,” he added. “Now they have a square to circle.”

In recent years, about two dozen Republican-led states have enacted laws that prohibit doctors from performing sex-change surgeries on minors — many of those states also banned gender transition drugs for minors as well. Several Democrat-led states have gone in the opposite direction, passing laws to expand access to such surgeries and drugs for minors.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. / Credit: Walter Breitenmoser/CNA

CNA Staff, Jul 5, 2024 / 13:10 pm (CNA).

The Pontifical Academy for Life has released a guide that it says will help the faithful in discussing the “religious and moral ethical implications” surrounding euthanasia, assisted suicide, and other controversial end-of-life topics.

The Vatican Publishing House released the brief booklet on July 2, Catholic News Service (CNS) reported this week. The pontifical academy “distributed the booklet to every bishop in Italy,” with the book as of yet available only in Italian.

The Vatican publisher on its website describes the document as a “little end-of-life lexicon,” one that offers “a series of explanatory and in-depth entries” in order to foster “a language understandable even to the uninitiated” regarding end-of-life matters.

The document is meant to “[help] those who are trying to disentangle these issues,” in part by avoiding “that component of disagreement that depends on an inaccurate use of the notions implied in the discourse.”

The topics “are presented through the lens of Catholic understanding and are connected by several fundamental tenets, such as the Christian meaning of life, death, freedom, responsibility, and care,” CNS said in its report.

CNS reported that the guide covers a variety of issues including comas, palliative care, pain management, euthanasia, organ donation, and “artificial nutrition and hydration,” among other matters.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia — who serves as the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life — urged the faithful to pursue “heartfelt and in-depth dialogue” on life issues rather than “prepackaged and partisan ideologies.”

The Catholic Church in recent years has taken strong stances against government policies such as euthanasia that devalue human life.

Bishops in France, Ireland, and the U.S. have urged the defeat of numerous euthanasia and assisted suicide proposals.

Pope Francis has similarly urged respect for life instead of euthanasia, calling on the faithful to “accompany people toward death, but not provoke death or facilitate assisted suicide.”

“You don’t play with life, neither at the beginning nor at the end. It is not played with!” he told journalists last year.

This article was updated on Saturday, July 6, at 2:00 p.m. to reflect that the report on the lexical book came from Catholic News Service.

Pope Francis waves to pilgrims at his General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 26, 2024 / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Jul 5, 2024 / 11:46 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will travel more than 20,000 miles over the course of seven flights during his ambitious 12-day trip to four countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania this September.

At the age of 87, the Holy Father is set to take on his most ambitious international trip yet, which will be the longest of his 11-year pontificate.

The Vatican published Friday the full schedule for the pope’s trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore from Sept. 2 to 13.

The first stop on his Southeast Asia tour is Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world, where he will preside over an interfaith meeting in Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque.

After a 13-hour flight and day of rest in the Indonesian capital, Francis will meet with the country’s President Joko Widodo on Sept. 4 and deliver a speech to political leaders at the Istana Merdeka Presidential Palace. 

The pope will also visit Jakarta’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption to meet with bishops, priests, religious sisters, and seminarians after meeting privately with local Jesuits. 

More than 29 million Christians live in Indonesia, 7 million of whom are Catholic, while Indonesia’s 229 million Muslims make up more than 12% of the global Muslim population. Nearly all of Indonesia’s Muslims are Sunni.

The pope’s second full day in Jakarta begins with an interreligious meeting in the Istiqlal Mosque, the ninth-largest mosque in the world. 

Pope Francis will conclude his time in Indonesia with a Mass on the evening of Sept. 5 in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 77,000, after meeting with beneficiaries from local charitable organizations.

On Sept. 6, he will travel nearly 3,000 miles to Papua New Guinea’s sprawling capital of Port Moresby.

Pope Francis will visit local ministries that care for street children and persons with disabilities on his first full day in Papua New Guinea on Sept. 7, which also includes a speech to the local political authorities and an address to the local clergy at the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians.

The following day, the pope will meet with Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape before presiding over Sunday Mass in Port Moresby’s Sir John Guise Stadium.

He will then fly to Vanimo, a city in the northwesternmost province of Papua New Guinea, where he will greet local missionaries and address local Catholics in front of the Holy Cross Cathedral before flying back to the capital city Sunday night.

Pope Francis will travel on Sept. 9 to the small country of East Timor, which has a population that is more than 97% Catholic. 

In Dili, the country’s capital, Pope Francis will visit children with disabilities, meet local clergy and religious in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, give a speech at the Presidential Palace, and preside over Mass in the Esplanade of Taci Tolu over the course of two days.

The pope’s final stop before returning to Rome will be the island of Singapore, the country with the highest GDP per capita in Asia and the second-highest population density of any country in the world.

Pope Francis will be welcomed to Singapore’s world-renowned Changi International Airport on Sept. 11. He will meet President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Sept. 12 before presiding over Mass in Singapore’s SportsHub National Stadium, the third stadium Mass of the trip. 

On his last day in Asia, the pope will preside over an interreligious meeting with young people in Singapore’s Catholic Junior College and visit a group of elderly people. He will make the 6,000-mile journey back to Italy on a chartered Singapore Airlines flight scheduled to land in Rome at 6:25 p.m. on Sept. 13.

The nearly two-week venture will be the pope’s first international trip in 2024. Francis has slowed down his travel schedule in recent months as health and mobility issues, from a knee injury to recurring bronchitis, have forced him to cancel some public appearances, including his last planned foreign visit to Dubai. 

Pope Francis is also scheduled to make a four-day trip to Belgium and Luxembourg at the end of September.

Ed Clancy, the director of outreach at the charity group Aid to the Church in Need, speaks with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol on July 3, 2024. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/YouTube/screen shot

CNA Staff, Jul 5, 2024 / 10:35 am (CNA).

A Catholic leader has called for an end to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, telling EWTN this week that the accused in such cases are “guilty before even [having] an opportunity to prove themselves.” 

A court in Punjab recently sentenced Ehsan Shan to death for sharing “hateful content” against Muslims on social media. 

Last year, when locals said that two Christian men desecrated the Quran, groups of Muslim men burned dozens of homes and churches in Jaranwala in the region of Punjab in one of the worst mob attacks against Christians in the country. 

Ed Clancy, the director of outreach at the charity group Aid to the Church in Need, told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol on Wednesday that after the attacks, Shan “posted some of the content of what was available on social media” regarding the allegations, including allegedly an image of a defaced Quran.

“Because he posted derogatory material that was alleged to be part of this uprising or the attacks on Christians last year — where 20 some odd buildings were burned and hundreds of people and families had to flee their homes because of it — all he did was post something about this and therefore was considered causing violence [and] was convicted of blasphemy,” Clancy told Sabol. 

Shan’s lawyer said on Monday that he will appeal the verdict, AP News reported. When asked if it is possible that Shan could successfully get an appeal if there is international outcry, Clancy noted that most of these blasphemy rulings get “thrown out” after an appeal.

“That’s usually because the first level of verdict is all just about appeasing the crowds and the mobs,” he explained. “Then when it goes up the chain, eventually the truth comes out.”

“Unfortunately for the poor Christians, this is devastating,” Clancy said. “They could spend years in prison fighting crimes that they didn’t commit.”

Clancy argued that foreign leaders haven’t come out as strongly as they should against such laws.

“What needs to happen is organizations, as well as countries, have to speak out about this,” he said. “First of all, to get rid of the blasphemy laws. Secondly, there should be equal justice. You can’t have situations where people are accused and they’re guilty before even [having] an opportunity to prove themselves.”

Clancy noted that these blasphemy accusations happen several dozen times per year. 

“Oftentimes, though, what’s equally as dangerous is just the mere specter of being accused,” he noted. “There are people who have told us that they are told that ‘If you do anything against me, we will accuse you of blasphemy.’”

“They know that once that accusation happens, they’re guilty until they’re proven innocent,” he continued. “They have to live under that fear and almost acquiesce to the wishes of those who make these threats against them.”

Clancy noted the example of Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death and ultimately spent almost a decade in prison after she drank from a glass that was supposed to be for Muslim women.

“She spent nine-plus years in prison,” Clancy said. “Her baby daughter essentially grew up not near her, and she had to flee the country along with her family.”

A peaceful protest against Shan’s death sentence took place in the southern port city of Karachi on Tuesday, with Christian leader Luke Victor calling for his release. 

Bishop Samson Shukardin, president of Pakistan’s Catholic bishops’ conference, meanwhile, called the ruling, “very, very painful” in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need. 

Archbishop Carlo Viganò. / Credit: Edward Pentin/National Catholic Register

Rome Newsroom, Jul 5, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).

The Vatican has officially excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith announced Friday.

Viganò was found guilty of the canonical crime, or delict, of schism, or the refusal to submit to the pope or the communion of the Church, at the conclusion of the Vatican’s extrajudicial penal process on July 4.

The Vatican’s doctrine office announced the “latae sententiae” excommunication (automatic excommunication) on July 5, citing Viganò’s “public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.”

The former papal nuncio to the United States is now excommunicated, the most serious penalty a baptized person can incur, which consists of being placed outside the communion of the faithful of the Catholic Church and denied access to the sacraments. 

The ruling comes after Viganò defied a Vatican summons to appear before the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to face charges of schism last week.

The former Vatican diplomat — who garnered headlines in 2018 for alleging that senior Church officials covered up abuses committed by former cardinal Theodore McCarrick — has repeatedly rejected the authority of Pope Francis since then and has called on him to resign.

In a lengthy statement shared on social media June 28, Viganò accused Pope Francis of “heresy and schism” over his promotion of COVID-19 vaccines and his overseeing of the 2018 Vatican-China deal on the appointment of bishops.

He also said he has “no reason to consider myself separate from communion with the holy Church and with the papacy, which I have always served with filial devotion and fidelity.”

“I maintain that the errors and heresies to which [Francis] adhered before, during, and after his election, along with the intention he held in his apparent acceptance of the papacy, render his elevation to the throne null and void,” Viganò wrote.

Viganò, who has been in hiding for years, announced on social media June 20 that he had been summoned to Rome to answer formal charges of schism.

The specific charges outlined against Viganò, according to a document he himself posted, involved making public statements that allegedly deny the fundamental elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church. This included denying the legitimacy of Pope Francis as the rightful pontiff and the outright rejection of the Second Vatican Council.

In response to the charges, Viganò said in a June 21 statement that he had not sent any materials in his defense to the Vatican, noting that he did not recognize the authority of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “nor that of its prefect, nor that of the person who appointed him.”

Viganò’s excommunication can only be lifted by the Apostolic See.

Pope Francis greets altar servers from France. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 5, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The city of Rome will host an international pilgrimage of the association of altar servers “Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium” (CIM) from July 29 to Aug. 3.

The German Bishops’ Conference stated in a July 2 press release that the theme for the 13th pilgrimage is “With You,” an expression taken from the Book of Isaiah. 

Nearly 50,000 altar servers from various countries including Germany, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Hungary will participate in this event.

In addition, they will be accompanied by the president of the CIM, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the archbishop of Luxembourg.

Some 35,000 altar servers are expected from Germany, who will be accompanied by the president of the youth commission of the German Bishops’ Conference, Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Wübbe, as well as numerous members of the German Bishops’ Conference.

The event will begin July 29 at the Maria S. Bambina Institute in Rome and will conclude with an audience with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on July 30 at 6 p.m. local time.

The activities of the pilgrimage will be coordinated by the press office of the German Bishops’ Conference.

This story was first published  by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

“Roadmap to Reality: Carlo Acutis and Our Digital Age” is a new documentary film exploring the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis and the lessons he offers young people regarding the challenges of the digital world that will be coming to theaters in the spring of 2025. / Credit: Castletown Media

CNA Staff, Jul 5, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new documentary film exploring the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis and the lessons he offers young people regarding the challenges of the digital world will be coming to theaters in the spring of 2025.

“Roadmap to Reality: Carlo Acutis and Our Digital Age” was announced by Castletown Media on July 1. 

This comes following the Vatican’s announcement that Acutis will be canonized. On July 1, the College of Cardinals gave a positive vote to the canonization of Acutis after Pope Francis recognized last month a second miracle attributed to the millennial’s intercession. The date for his canonization has not yet been announced.

According to a press release, “‘Roadmap to Reality’ blends live action, animation, and documentary-style interviews with Carlo’s family, friends, scholars, and tech experts. The film tackles urgent contemporary questions, examining how the rise of artificial intelligence and virtual landscape challenge our fundamental understanding of what it means to be human.”

Acutis’ mother, Antonia Salzano Acutis, is also featured in the film. In the press release, she said: “Carlo is a great example to young people today. Today, people feel as if they are in a tragic state if they don’t have access to the internet. However, the real tragedy is that our world is disconnected from God. Holiness is still possible. Carlo shows us that we can be saints in today’s world.”

Castletown Media, in collaboration with Catholic filmmaker Jim Wahlberg, is producing the film, and it will be distributed through Fathom Events. The two recently experienced success with their film project “Jesus Thirsts: The Miracle of the Eucharist,” which became Fathom Events’ highest-grossing documentary of 2024 and is currently in first place among all documentaries released in 2024 so far.

Tim Moriarty, director of the new Acutis film and founder of Castletown Media, told CNA in an interview that discussions about making the film started about six months ago. 

“The C3 Foundation in Beaumont, Texas, is a sponsor of Christ Central Camp, which was established for the youth of Diocese of Beaumont in 2023,” he said. “Bishop David Toups, who has a deep devotion to Blessed Carlo Acutis, named the camp’s chapel in his honor. Inspired by Blessed Carlo’s witness and driven by a desire to help young people navigate the modern world’s challenges while striving for holiness, the C3 Foundation approached Jim Wahlberg and Castletown Media to create a feature-length documentary about the first millennial saint.”

The film not only tells the story of Acutis and examines issues in our digital world, but it also “follows a group of high school students from North Dakota as they embark on a pilgrimage to visit Carlo’s tomb. As part of this experience, the students leave their phones at home, emphasizing the importance of disconnecting from technology to fully engage with reality,” Moriarty added.

The director believes that a film about this young soon-to-be saint is needed because “Carlo’s life provides a road map away from the distractions of the virtual world to the real world, especially through his devotion to the Eucharist — his ‘highway to heaven.’”

“He believed that only through deep devotion to the Eucharist and the spiritual nourishment it offers can we find the strength to navigate the present dangers of our world and live a joy-filled life in Christ,” he explained. 

Moriarty called working with Acutis’ mother a “wonderful and inspiring experience.”

“Antonia affectionately refers to Carlo as her ‘little savior’ because he led her back to a strong embrace of her faith. We also had the privilege of speaking with his father, Andrea Acutis, who shared similar sentiments,” he recalled. 

“The Acutis family talks about Carlo with such grace and conviction, providing light and hope for all families striving to raise holy children in today’s world.”

As for what he hopes viewers will take away from the film, Wahlberg told CNA: “Carlo Acutis serves as a relatable and inspiring figure for today’s generation. He shows us that sanctity is still possible in modern times. By highlighting his devotion to the Eucharist and his balanced approach to technology, we aim to inspire viewers to see that holiness is attainable in our modern world.”

Moriarty added: “G.K. Chesterton once said that each generation gets its own saint according to its unique and special needs. We firmly believe that Carlo Acutis is the saint for our age. In a world increasingly dominated by technology and marked by human isolation, Carlo stands as a powerful example of using technology as a tool for evangelization rather than becoming a tool of technology.”