Vatican makes major announcement on teen becoming a saint following Pope Francis' death
The Vatican has made a major announcement on the status of a teen's sainthood that was scheduled with Pope Francis this week.
Carlo Acutis was a London-born Italian, who lived most of his life in Milan, where he was dedicated to the Catholic Church and to the less fortunate.
However, sadly at the age of 15, he passed away from leukaemia in 2006, but has been considered for a sainthood after the Vatican determined he was behind two unexplainable miracles.
The late teen's body has been preserved for the past 19 years, and was due to receive his sainthood from Pope Francis on Sunday (April 27) for his long-awaited official saint induction.
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Now, the Vatican has been forced to address the situation after the pontiff was pronounced dead just before 8am on Easter Monday (April 21).
Pope Francis, 88, had suffered a short respiratory illness in the weeks before his passing.
A spokesperson for the Vatican said in a statement that the Canonization of Acutis has been temporarily put on hold, as per The Mirror.
They said: "Following the death of the Sovereign Pontiff Francis, we inform you that the Eucharistic Celebration and Rite of Canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis... has been postponed."
As per protocol, several vital Catholic Church functions are closed and shuttered when a pope dies.
Acutis' canonization has been in the works for almost two decades since his death, after Vatican officials discovering the teen had helped a two-year-old Brazilian boy, Matheus Vianna, recover from a deadly disease.
Vianna was diagnosed with congenital disorder annular pancreas, which saw his mom turn to the church for help.
She received help from Father Marcelo Tenorio, who was blessing Acutis' body as part of the pre-Canonization stage, who touched a piece of the teen's clothing to the toddler and asked for him to be healed.
Vianna's family said after the incident, he was never sick again.
The Vatican also deemed Acutis responsible for another miracle when a Costa Rican woman, who had suffered a brain haemorrhage after a serious crash, started to breathe again.
Her mom had prayed at Acutis' coffin, and the woman was later discharged from hospital after medics said her brain haemorrhage had fully gone.
In his life, the Italian teen received his first communion when he was seven and regularly donated money to the poor as a child.
Acutis spent his evenings cooking hot meals for the homeless when he was old enough, and earned the nickname 'God's influencer', due to his passion in technology.
He used to document miracles that he discovered during the Eurcharist before he died, uploading them onto the website he set up called 'Eucharistic Miracles of the World,' and spread the word of Catholicism, while digitalising some of the operations of his local church.
Topics: Pope Francis, Catholic Church, Religion, World News, Health
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