Month: April 2025

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Vatican announces changes to this week’s Jubilee of Teenagers in Rome

April 21, 2025 Catholic News Agency 0
Pope Francis hears confessions of teenagers in St. Peter’s Square. / L’Osservatore Romano.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 21, 2025 / 11:41 am (CNA).

The Vatican has announced that despite the death of Pope Francis, the Jubilee of Teenagers is still scheduled to take place in Rome beginning this Friday, April 25, through Sunday, April 27.

According to a statement from the Dicastery for Evangelization, the event is expected to draw upwards of 80,000 teenagers from all over the world to the Vatican.

Several adjustments are being made to the program due to the death of the Holy Father.

Among the changes: The previously scheduled April 27 canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis has been postponed. Due to the time of mourning, the musical celebration at Circus Maximus scheduled for April 26 at 5 p.m. has also been canceled.

Jubilee of Teenagers programming still scheduled to take place includes the April 25 “Via Lucis” prayer time, the “Dialogues with the City” squares on Saturday, April 26, the pilgrimages to the Holy Door and the holy Mass, without the canonization of Acutis, in St. Peter’s Square on April 27.

The first-ever Jubilee of Teenagers figures as one of the most anticipated events of the holy year and is especially dedicated to young people, who will have a unique experience of “faith, spiritual growth, and intercultural exchange.”

The vast majority of those registered come from Italy, although numerous groups are also expected to arrive from the United States, Brazil, India, Spain, Portugal, France, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Germany, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, Nigeria, and many other countries.

The delegations will come from dioceses, youth ministries, associations, and movements such as the Association of Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts, Italian Catholic Action, and the Salesian Youth Movement, among others.

The official program includes several highlights, beginning with the Via Lucis (Way of Light), an act of piety in which the apparitions of the risen Christ are meditated upon, which will take place on April 25 in the EUR neighborhood, just outside Rome.

On Saturday, April 26, there will be a day of thematic events throughout Rome, called “Dialogues with the City.”

One of the culminating moments will be on Sunday, April 27, with Mass in St. Peter’s Square, though without the canonization of Acutis.

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

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News Briefs

Vatican postpones Carlo Acutis canonization following Pope Francis’ death

April 21, 2025 Catholic News Agency 0
A reliquary containing relics of Blessed Carlo Acutis at the Church of Sant’Angela Merici in Rome, Oct 11, 2021. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, Apr 21, 2025 / 08:20 am (CNA).

The Vatican announced Monday that the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis has been postponed following the death of Pope Francis.

“Following the death of Supreme Pontiff Francis, notice is hereby given that the Eucharistic celebration and Rite of Canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis, scheduled for April 27, 2025, II Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Adolescents, is suspended,” the Holy See Press Office said in a statement on April 21.

More than 80,000 teenagers were expected to gather in Rome for the April 27 canonization amid the Vatican’s Jubilee of Teenagers, according to the Dicastery for Evangelization, with young people registered from the United States, Brazil, India, Spain, Portugal, France, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Germany, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, and Nigeria.

News of Pope Francis’ death broke as pilgrims were beginning to arrive for the planned canonization, including a group of students from St. Joachim Parish in Sydney, Australia, who traveled more than 10,000 miles to attend the canonization.

With the death of the pope, the Catholic Church has entered a mourning period. Pope Francis’ funeral is expected within the next week. A conclave to elect his successor typically begins approximately 15 days after a pope’s death.

A Mass for the Jubilee of Teenagers is still expected to go ahead, according to the Associated Press.

Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15, is known for his devotion to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Born in 1991 in London and raised in Milan, he is the first millennial to be beatified by the Church.

Shortly after his first Communion at the age of 7, Carlo told his mother: “To always be united to Jesus: This is my life plan.” To accomplish this, Carlo sought to attend daily Mass as often as possible at the parish church across the street from his elementary school in Milan.

Carlo called the Eucharist “my highway to heaven,” and he did all in his power to make this presence known. His witness inspired his own parents to return to practicing the Catholic faith and his Hindu au pair to convert and be baptized.

Carlo was a tech-savvy kid who loved computers, animals, and video games. His spiritual director has recalled that Carlo was convinced that the evidence of Eucharistic miracles could be persuasive in helping people to realize that Jesus is present at every Mass.

Over the course of two and a half years, Carlo worked with his family to put together an exhibition on Eucharistic miracles that premiered in 2005 during the Year of the Eucharist proclaimed by Pope John Paul II and has since gone on to be displayed at thousands of parishes on five continents.

Many of Carlo’s classmates, friends, and family members have testified how he brought them closer to God. They remember Carlo as a very open person who was not shy to speak with his classmates and anyone he met about the things that he loved: the Mass, the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and heaven.

He is remembered for saying: “People who place themselves before the sun get a tan; people who place themselves before the Eucharist become saints.”

Carlo died at the age of 15 in 2006 shortly after being diagnosed with leukemia. Before he died, Carlo told his mother: “I offer all of my suffering to the Lord for the pope and for the Church in order not to go to purgatory but to go straight to heaven.”

The Vatican has not yet given an alternative date when the canonization could take place. The Church’s Jubilee of Youth will take place in Rome from July 28 to Aug. 3, during which another beloved young person, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, is set to be canonized.

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