Experts demonstrate how Carlo Acutis modeled faith-filled tech use to encourage offline interactions.

By Jonah McKeown

CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2024 / 10:55 am

An online presentation Tuesday sponsored by the National Eucharistic Revival explored the question of how Catholics can use technology for good, inspired by the life of soon-to-be-saint Carlo Acutis.

Acutis, a young Italian who died in 2006, is due to be canonized during the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year. He is known for his skillful use of technology to spread his Catholic faith, particularly his creation of a still-extant website cataloging Eucharistic miracles.

Born in 1991, Carlo’s mother remembers the young whiz kid proudly describing himself as a “computer scientist” well before he got his first computer as a gift around the year 2000. He is often described as the Catholic Church’s first “tech-savvy” saint.

Tim Moriarty, director of the new film “Roadmap to Reality: Carlo Acutis and Our Digital Age” and co-host of the Dec. 17 webinar, highlighted statistics that suggest the average teen spends half of his or her waking hours looking at screens, and the troubling evidence of mental health issues and suicidal ideation linked to excessive digital engagement.

He described Acutis as a “digital missionary” who masterfully used the internet as a tool in his pursuit of holiness while the Eucharist kept him anchored to reality — unlike so many of his peers who, Moriarty argued, fell into the distractions, vices, and prideful pursuits that the burgeoning internet had to offer.

In the face of such challenges posed by imprudent use of technology, “in a world losing itself to screens,” Moriarty called Acutis “absolutely a saint for our times …