Holy Smoke: why the canonisation of the first millennial saint is a cause to celebrate

<p>The Catholic Church will acquire its first millennial saint today, when Pope Leo XIV canonises someone who, if he were alive today, would be young enough to be his son.&nbsp;</p><br><p>Carlo Acutis, a ‘computer geek’ from a prosperous Italian family,&nbsp;died aged just 15 in 2006. In this episode of <em>Holy Smoke</em>, Damian Thompson talks to Mgr Anthony Figueiredo and the Italian-based journalist Nicholas Farrell about the extraordinary phenomenon of St Carlo, the miracles associated with him – and the scepticism they arouse – and a mean-spirited attack on him by one of the late Pope Francis’s closest advisers.&nbsp;</p><br><p>Produced by Patrick Gibbons.</p> <hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>