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10 . 18 . 2020

Blessed Carlo Acutis – The First Saintly Gamer

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Images via carloacutis.com

I have been waiting for this day to come.

Well, technically it’s still not here yet. At the time I am writing this it was been just over a week since Blessed Carlo Acutis was beatified on October 10th, and of course has not yet been canonized a saint. However, I have great confidence that he soon will, and on the day that happens you bet we will make him our patron. As hinted in the title, Carlo did, in fact, play video games.

Hearing this for the first time had a big impact on me. Technology has moved so fast in recent years that many of the saints that lived even just 50 years ago seemed to have existed in a completely different society than us. Fortunately the date of Carlo’s death (2006) was recent enough to bypass this effect for the most part.

Born in 1991, video games were already mainstream by the time Carlo came around. Like many other millennials, he had at least one game console, and likely others. From what I have been able to gather, it’s been reported he had a PlayStation, played Halo and loved Pokémon and Mario. Because of the Pokémon and Mario comment, it would be reasonable to assume he may have also had an N64, GameCube or Gameboy. I have heard murmurings that a lot of his tech is now being looked through, so more information will hopefully surface as time goes on.

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you – you’re looking right at a saint.

I truly believe that part of God’s mission for Carlo was to be a role model for the technology-lovers. He used the internet, but only for good and to spread word about Eucharistic miracles. He loved his console(s) but made sure not to spend too much time gaming. And most importantly, he had a profound love for Christ and made his will the centerpiece of his life.

The fact that this soon-to-be-canonized had such a life really helps communicate to the latest generation that they are most definitely eligible to be saints. Times have changed but God’s call to holiness has not. If you are a Millennial or Gen-Z who loves YouTube and plays video games every day, you are called to sainthood just as much as your grandfather who doesn’t know what a “Facebook” is.

Blessed Carlo Acutis, pray for us!

About Catoons

Catoons is the founder of catholicgamereviews.com. He began playing video games in the 7th generation of consoles, most notably on the DS and Wii. He continued his journey in years of pain stuck only with a Wii U while all the cool kids had Xboxes and Playstations.

These days, however, he laughs at the peasants buying the next-gen Xbox and Playstation through his two monitors securely connected to his gaming PC. Since his PC is filled to the brim with dangerous uncontrollable energy, he decides to take his Nintendo Switch with himself on the go. (Also because it has really good exclusives.)

He hopes to be a source of evangelization for the Church in the modern world especially among the younger generation, by being a positive presence in the gaming community. Along with running this site, he is studying Cybersecurity Engineering and enjoying the college campus ministry.

Last but not least, he encourages you to pray for the intercession of Blessed Carlo Acutis for the success of this and other Catholic websites.