Top photo credit: Castletown Media
Imagine paying tribute to St. Carlo Acutis, the technologically agile “Patron Saint of the Internet,” by foregoing your mobile phone for two whole weeks.
That would be hard enough for most full-fledged adults to attempt nowadays. Even more impressive, it’s what a group of high school students from North Dakota actually did as part of a recent pilgrimage to Assisi, where the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint is buried.
Their experience offering a real-world witness and drawing closer to a relatable hero of the faith, all the while staying present and offline, is chronicled for audiences in the new film, “Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality.” The documentary will be screened locally at 7 p.m. Sept. 25 in the Strand Theater in Lakewood – the Diocese’s only scheduled showing as of this publication.
St. Carlo has drawn worldwide interest and admiration for bringing a ‘digital native’ sensibility – he famously owned a PlayStation and created a website carefully cataloging Eucharistic miracles throughout the ages – to the 21st-century Church. He died of leukemia at age 15 in 2006 in his home country of Italy.
Canonized by Pope Leo XIV Sept. 7, 2025, St. Carlo Acutis holds a special connection for the youth of the Diocese of Trenton. Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., declared the beloved youth “Patron of all Catholic schools and young people of the Diocese” April 28, 2022. His cause has been celebrated in parish youth programs and Catholic schools throughout the Diocese, with many visiting the Diocesan Shrine of St. Carlo Acutis in St. Dominic Church, Brick, which Bishop dedicated Oct. 1, 2023.
“So many young people and children are choosing Carlo for their confirmation saint,” said Katie Magnusson, parish secretary for Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Lakewood, which will be hosting the event. “His devotion to the Eucharist and his devotion to God’s will are unparalleled in this generation.”
Tickets for the screening are $15 and can be reserved at https://go.watchcredo.com/events/ur8biqt8ogd5fxtvr2xi0orm or at olglakewood.org/news-bulletin/parish-weekly-news/. The Strand Theater is located at 400 Clifton Ave. in Lakewood.