Pope Leo will join with representatives of other Churches and Ecclesial Communities on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross for an ecumenical ceremony commemorating 21st century martyrs and witnesses of the faith.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The greatest risk in life is to waste it by not seeking to follow God's plan, Pope Leo XIV said, proclaiming two new saints -- two young laymen of the 20th and 21st centuries.

"Sts. Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upward and make them masterpieces," the pope said Sept. 7.

"The simple but winning formula of their holiness," he said, is accessible to everyone at any time. "They encourage us with their words: 'Not I, but God,' as Carlo used to say. And Pier Giorgio: 'If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end.'" 

Before canonizing the first saints of his pontificate, Pope Leo greeted the more than 80,000 faithful who had gathered early in St. Peter's Square because he wanted to share his joy with them before the start of the solemn ceremony.

"Brothers and sisters, today is a wonderful celebration for all of Italy, for the whole church, for the whole world," he said before the Mass.

"While the celebration is very solemn, it is also a day of great joy, and I wanted to greet especially the many young people who have come for this holy Mass," he said, also greeting the families of the soon-to-be saints and the associations and communities to which the young men had belonged.

Pope Leo asked that everyone "feel in our hearts the same thing that Pier Giorgio and Carlo experienced: this love for Jesus Christ, especially in the Eucharist, but also in the poor, in our brothers and sisters." 

"All of you, all of us, are also called to be saints," he said, before leaving to prepare for Mass and paying homage to a statue of Mary with baby Jesus and the reliquaries containing the relics of the two young men.

In his homily, the pope underlined Jesus' call in the day's Gospel reading "to abandon ourselves without hesitation to the adventure that he offers us, with the intelligence and strength that comes from his Spirit, that we can receive to the extent that we empty ourselves of the things and ideas to which we are attached, in order to listen to his word."

That is what the two new saints did and what every disciple of Christ is called to do, he said.

Many people, especially when they are young, he said, face a kind of "crossroads" in life when they reflect on what to do with their life.

The saints of the church are often portrayed as "great figures, forgetting that for them it all began when, while still young, they said 'yes' to God and gave themselves to him completely, keeping nothing for themselves," the pope said.

"Today we look to St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and St. Carlo Acutis: a young man from the early 20th century and a teenager from our own day, both in love with Jesus and ready to give everything for him," he said.

Pope Leo then dedicated a large portion of his homily to sharing quotes from the two and details of their lives, which is something Pope Francis had shifted away from, preferring to focus more on the day's readings.

"Pier Giorgio's life is a beacon for lay spirituality," Pope Leo said.

"For him, faith was not a private devotion, but it was driven by the power of the Gospel and his membership in ecclesial associations," he said. "He was also generously committed to society, contributed to political life and devoted himself ardently to the service of the poor." 

"Carlo, for his part, encountered Jesus in his family, thanks to his parents, Andrea and Antonia -- who are here today with his two siblings, Francesca and Michele," he said, as the crowd applauded, and Antonia smiled shyly at the camera.

St. Acutis also encountered Jesus at the Jesuit-run school he attended and "above all in the sacraments celebrated in the parish community," he said. "He grew up naturally integrating prayer, sport, study and charity into his days as a child and young man."

The pope said the new saints "cultivated their love for God and for their brothers and sisters through simple acts, available to everyone: daily Mass, prayer and especially Eucharistic adoration."

St. Frassati was born April 6, 1901, in Turin and died there July 4, 1925, of polio at the age of 24. St. Acutis was born to Italian parents May 3, 1991, in London and died in Monza, Italy, Oct. 12, 2006, of leukemia at the age of 15.

The pope said that "even when illness struck them and cut short their young lives, not even this stopped them nor prevented them from loving, offering themselves to God, blessing him and praying to him for themselves and for everyone."

Several family members and people closely associated with the new saints attended the Mass, along with dignitaries, such as Italian President Sergio Mattarella. 

St. Acutis' parents, Andrea and Antonia, and his twin siblings, Michele and Francesca, who were born four years after their brother died, were present and together brought the pope the offertory gifts. Michele also did the first reading at the Mass in English.

Valeria Valverde, who read the first prayer of the faithful, is a young Costa Rican woman who suffered a severe head injury while living in Italy. It was her unexplained healing that provided the second miracle needed for St. Acutis' canonization.

St. Frassati was active with Catholic Action, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Italian Catholic University Federation and the Dominican Third Order. Lorenzo Zardi, vice president of the youth group of Italy's Catholic Action read the second reading at the Mass and Michele Tridente, the secretary general of the lay movement, also presented the pope with offertory gifts.

Before praying the Angelus, the pope once again thanked everyone for coming to celebrate the church's two new saints.

However, he also called for people's "incessant prayer for peace, especially in the Holy Land, and in Ukraine and in every other land bloodied by war."

"To governing leaders, I repeat, listen to the voice of conscience," he said.

"The apparent victories won with weapons, sowing death and destruction, are really defeats and will never bring peace and security," he said.

"God does not want war. God wants peace!" he exclaimed to applause. God gives strength to those who work toward leaving behind the cycle of hatred and pursue the path of dialogue.

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ASSISI, Italy (CNS) -- Soon-to-be St. Carlo Acutis is a fresh "shoot" budding from the 800-year-old spiritual "vine" of Sts. Francis and Clare in Assisi, said the rector of the shrine housing the millennial teenager's tomb.

"Assisi is clearly known for St. Francis and St. Clare, and this explosion of holiness in the 13th century is still incredibly fruitful today," Father Marco Gaballo, rector of the Shrine of the Renunciation, told Catholic News Service in late August.

Pope Leo XIV was scheduled to canonize the teen Sept. 7 at the Vatican, together with Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati of Turin.

Born in London in 1991 and raised in Milan, Blessed Acutis spent most of his vacation time in Assisi, where his family owned another home. Just as he was very active in his parish and Jesuit-run high school in Milan, he also dedicated himself to the church community in Assisi, learning about St. Francis and being inspired by the saint's respect for creation and dedication to the poor, according to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints' website.

"Carlo chose to be buried here," in Assisi, because of his strong attraction and connection to St. Francis, Father Gaballo said. 

"This is the novelty of our time," he said. "Carlo represents a shoot budding from this long history of holiness that, after eight centuries, still involves young people and knows how to attract and produce new pathways" to holiness.

Blessed Acutis, who once said everyone is born as a unique original, "but many die as photocopies," was himself a "true disciple of St. Francis. He did not copy him, he was inspired by him," seeking to share the Gospel "in his own way, in the age of the internet, as a teenager," he said.

According to the Vatican office for saints' causes, Blessed Acutis was devoted to Mary, recited the rosary daily, helped the poor and homeless, edited and ran the website of the parish of Santa Maria Segreta in Milan, where he also taught catechism and prepared children for confirmation, and organized the website of the Pontifical Academy "Cultorum Martyrum."

"His holiness seems truly accessible, close to everyone because, after all, he also played on his computer, swam, played sports, went to school, but lived with his heart completely oriented toward Jesus," Father Gaballo said. 

"We have this beautiful message that even a person who decides to choose Christ completely as the only thing in their heart, they then find a full life in real life," whether it be in the 21st century or the Middle Ages when St. Francis lived and "made sacrifices that, I believe, are impossible for others to repeat today," he said.

Blessed Acutis is buried in a room -- now a shrine -- dedicated to remembering St. Francis' "renunciation," when he publicly disrobed and renounced his family's wealth to live in poverty and humble service to God.

Just as the 13th-century saint stripped himself of his earthly possessions, the teen was stripped of his health when he fell ill with leukemia, and he offered his life to God; he died at the age of 15 in 2006.

These two acts of renunciation, made centuries apart, illustrate a core message of the shrine, the priest said, which is that following Jesus happens on a "path of self-denial, diminishing one's ego, selfishness and negative human impulses that destroy humanity, the environment, nature and society."

"When one embraces this renunciation, this difficult path, which is hard at first, then on the other side there is love, which is being clothed in the glory" of God's light, he said. 

The blessed's radical acceptance of God's plan, even if it meant letting go of family, friends and earthly life, provided profound support for one pilgrim visiting the tomb.

Massimo Mennelli, from the parish of St. Joseph the Artisan in San Severo, Italy, was one of the thousands of visitors to Assisi Aug. 21. He told CNS that "this young man's life is a great lesson for us, for us Catholics. He is a great guide."

Mennelli and his wife, Fiorella Sacco, are catechists who prepare parents for their child's baptism, he said. "In every catechesis, we cannot help but give examples from his story, from his life, because I consider Carlo Acutis one of the greatest gifts that the Lord could have given, excuse me," he paused with tears in his eyes, "to humanity in the third millennium."

Mennelli said he gets choked up because Blessed Acutis' life "prepared me for a very difficult family situation" of losing his brother a year and a half ago.

He and his dying brother faced the tragedy "in a truly God-centered way," he said, "thanks to Carlo, who taught us to trust in God. This was a great sign of the Lord for us: we are at peace."

"My brother is now in heaven. I hope he has met Carlo, who gave us this great strength and this great testimony that the Lord loves us and cares for us, and that when we reach his kingdom, we will attain eternal peace," Mennelli said, holding up a handmade doll of the blessed his wife makes with other volunteers at their parish. 

Sacco said they wanted a doll for kids so that instead of "heroes of war, they would have a hero of peace," adding that all the proceeds go to help their parish and charitable initiatives in their town and abroad.

An image of the Eucharist is sewn on top of the doll's red shirt right over his heart, she said, and inside his backpack, there is a small handmade rosary with "15 beads in memory of the 15 years he lived."

About 1 million people visited just the Church of St. Mary Major, where the shrine and Blessed Acutis' tomb are located, in 2024. Those numbers are expected to be much higher in 2025 because of the huge spike in visitors who came to Italy for the Holy Year and especially for his expected canonization in April, the Jubilee of Youth at the end of July and early August, and his actual canonization in September.

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