Vatican establishes feast days of St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati

Victoria Cardiel By Victoria Cardiel for CNA

September 9, 2025 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

St. Carlo Acutis (left) and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati. / Credit: Diocese of Assisi/Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Sep 9, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church will commemorate the liturgical memorial of St. Carlo Acutis on Oct. 12 and of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati on July 4. The two young men were canonized Sept. 7 by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

In the case of St. Carlo Acutis, the Italian teenager who died in 2006 and was beatified in Assisi in October 2020, his feast day was set for Oct. 12, coinciding with the anniversary of his death from fulminant leukemia at the age of 15.

The decree of the then-Congregation — now Dicastery — for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, promulgated after the beatification, set the date for the calendars of the dioceses of Assisi and Milan in addition to authorizing its celebration in other communities that requested it.

Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young man from Turin who died in 1925 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990, will be commemorated every year on July 4, also coinciding with the day of his death. His memorial Mass is celebrated especially in Italy and in youth communities that consider him a patron and spiritual role model.

Both saints, commemorated on the date they passed into eternal life, have become role models of faith and commitment for young people. Acutis is known for his witness of faith in the digital world and his love for the Eucharist, and Frassati was described by St. John Paul II as a “man of the Beatitudes.” Their intense spiritual life and commitment to charitable works continue to inspire new generations of Catholics around the world.

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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Pope Francis condemns abortion in new comments about Roe v. Wade decision, responds to question on Communion

July 4, 2022 Catholic News Agency 12
Pope Francis speaks to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi after Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, 2022. / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 4, 2022 / 03:43 am (CNA).

Pope Francis condemned abortion in new comments about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

When asked whether a Catholic politician who supports the right to choose abortion can receive the sacrament of Communion, he warned of bishops losing their “pastoral nature.”

Speaking to Reuters over the weekend, the pope said he respected the ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, though he did not know enough to speak about the juridical aspects.

The interview, published July 4, said Francis compared abortion to “hiring a hit man.”

“I ask: Is it legitimate, is it right, to eliminate a human life to resolve a problem?” Pope Francis said.

He was also asked about the debate over whether Catholic politicians who promote legal abortion should be admitted to Holy Communion.

In May, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was barred from receiving Communion in her home diocese of San Francisco by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone because of her advocacy of abortion.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly received Holy Communion at a Mass with Pope Francis at the Vatican on June 29. It is not clear if the pope was aware that Pelosi attended, though the Vatican issued a photo showing the two greeting each other in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Pope Francis told Reuters: “When the Church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses his pastoral nature, it causes a political problem. That’s all I can say.”

The 90-minute interview in Italian took place on July 2 in a reception room on the ground floor of the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse, where the pope lives.

In addition to the abortion topic, the interview covered the pope’s health, resignation rumors, and the possibility of trips to Kyiv and Moscow.

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