Carlo Acutis' canonization sparked a lively discussion among Italian theologians. On this occasion, the architect of the fight against the conventional Holy Mass indicated the direction towards which the liturgy in the Synod Church should go.
Carlo Acutis canonization and unexpected criticism
On September 7, 2025, the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis, Italy, who died in his youth, will be held, while engaging in the promotion of the cognition of Eucharistic miracles and the worship of the Blessed Sacrament. The canonization of a 15-year-old causes large interest, both due to the age of the future saint and the nature of the activity he has undertaken. Carlo spread the service to the Eucharist primarily on the Internet, setting up a page presenting a list of many Eucharistic miracles.
It seemed that the canonization of Carlo Acutis would meet with widespread acceptance, even if the process was alternatively hasty, but this is simply a typical feature of many beatification and canonization processes of fresh decades. However, the well-known Italian Catholic scholar, prof. Andrea Grillo, was very critical of canonization.
Grillo is well known to PCh24.pl readers. He is simply a lecturer in the Pontifical Athenaeum of St Anzelm in Rome, commonly called Anselmianum. Even before the publication of the motu proprio “Traditionis custodes” Grillo announced that Francis would revoke Benedict XVI's decision, which “released” conventional Holy Mass. erstwhile the Pope did, Grillo became active in defending his document. Many publicists believe that the prof. was actually the chief architect of the "Traditionis custodes".
A run critical of the canonization of Carlo Acutis, prof. Grillo began in mid-June. It caused a large stir, not only in Italy, but besides in many another countries, especially English-speaking. It happened that Anselmianum was cut off from the professor. Without mentioning his name, the institution published a message declaring complete fidelity to the teaching of the Catholic Church, a commitment to a sound theological debate and a cut off from the private blog statements of its lecturers, indicating that they take full work for them.
Grill publications met overwhelmingly with harsh criticism, accusing him of crypto-protestantism or full hatred of the Eucharist. On the another hand, there was a large group of theologians who considered Grill’s texts to be very applicable in substance, even if they were separated from the language utilized by the professor.
In this article, I decided to briefly discuss the allegations that Grillo makes about the canonization of Carlo Acutis. I do so due to the fact that they seem to be an highly interesting manifestation of ideology, which shines not only on the Grill, but on all serious critics of conventional Holy Mass.
Piousness to Throw Away
If we were to bring things into the most simple categories, we could say the following. At the end of the early mediate Ages, a process began which led to “schisms” within the meaning of the Eucharist. The substance of the sacrament was separated from its use. As a result, the worship of the Eucharist as a substance developed. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, many liturgical gestures, processes of God's Body – all this is an expression of piety, which, to an unsatisfactory extent, understands that the appropriate effect of the Eucharist is the "ecclesiastical communion" created by receiving the Eucharist. In another words, the highest form of the presence of the Body of Christ is not the fact about His Body and Blood in the form of bread and wine, but the gift of the unity and love of the Church, which is realized in the Eucharist. The discovery of this truth, which was to take place in the 20th century, forces profound changes in liturgy and piety. Carlo Acutis is simply a witness to the godliness of the past.
Today these forms must be crossed, hence its canonization is wrong. Consistently, therefore, fresh forms of Eucharistic piety should be developed, which do not affect conventional Latin liturgy. Hence the apparent request for her marginalisation for a fresh liturgy – understood as a task, due to the fact that the improvement has not yet been full implemented. Incidentally, Grill's besides seemed to full agree with the Synod about the Synodality, which decreed the “synodalization” of the liturgy. Since the Synod of Synodality continues, it is possible that the “synodization” of the liturgy will proceed in the spirit of the close prof. of Anselmianum. It is so crucial to know this spirit.
What did Andrea Grillo write?
"How is it possible that a blessed young man can preach Eucharistic theology so outdated, so burdensome, so obsessive, so focused on what is irrelevant, and so neglecting what is important?" Andrea Grillo started his run against the canonization of Carlo Acutis. On June 17, 2025, the blog “Come se non” published an article entitled “Young Carlo Acutis and Bad Eucharistic Education” (including “Il giovane Carlo Acutis e la maleducazione eucaristica”). Grillo claims that Acutis followed false Eucharistic ideas and so his canonization poses a threat to the Catholic Church.
Grillo believes that Carlo Acutis was the victim of evil teachers who taught him misconceptions about the Eucharist. That is why the young boy was to be so curious in Eucharistic miracles. The author claims that an “obsolete interpretation” of consecration and Eucharistic celebration is behind reasoning that appreciates Eucharistic miracles. The actual heart of the Eucharist, says Grillo, is “the unity between the sacramental body and the ecclesiastical body”, but in Carlo Acutis, due to his teachers, this is to be invisible. "Is this form of grossly bad Eucharistic education to be made by Carl, his first victim, a model for all youth?" asked the question.
In another published text entitled “The language of holiness: words and images of Carlo Acutis and about him” (including “Il linguaggio della santà: parole e immagini su e di Carlo Acutis”) Grillo quotes the description of Carlo Acutis contained on the Vatican pages. Acutis was named “The Apostle of the Eucharist”. The Vatican points out that he received Holy Communion regular (as shortly as he could, physically, erstwhile he could not—spiritually); he told his peers about the Eucharist and about Eucharistic miracles; he founded a website where he described Eucharistic miracles; he modeled on the shepherds of Fatima; he said a rosary all day; he dedicated himself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. All this, according to Grillo, does not make him “apostle of the Eucharist”. In his opinion, the beatification of Acutis is actually a “infantylization of the Church” due to the fact that Carlo was “a boy who was not guided by the wisdom that adults around him should have”.
“By means of a fifteen-year-old boy who repeats 19th-century stereotypes, spirituality and the Church are promoted, a imagination of sacraments and prayers that are outdated by 200 years. It is the Church which, yes, is open—but only through the back door, to nostalgia and to establish in the most limited forms of individualistic and bourgeois piety," he wrote.
Then Grillo criticizes the words of Acutis, which he quotes to the Vatican, and which he does not think is wise. He is critical of specified sentences as: “The Rosary is the shortest way to heaven.” “Life is truly beautiful only erstwhile we begin to love God above all things, and our neighbour as ourselves.” “Not me, but God.”
These words, Grillo writes, “are not besides original,” are not truly spiritual, are to fall into “ecstatic identity readings”. For example, the words “Not me, but God” are to image “the naivety, understood by a 14-year-old, but little understood by those who reproduce it.”
According to Grill, the piety of Carlo Acutis is due to the “fiction in consecration”, understood autonomously towards the liturgy Words and all Eucharistic Prayer, as well as the rites of communion. Professor of Anselmianum maintains that it is incorrect to separate the sacrament as a substance from its comparatively autonomous use. The Sacrament is both a substance and a use, it writes, so Eucharistic miracles, focusing only on substances, They ignore the fullness of the sacrament. In another words, the sacrament goes beyond "the word over the bread and the cup," reaching up to "the work with the bread and the cup," everything that Christ does with the bread and the wine becomes the sacrament.
In 1 later text, he expressed the same thought: “The highest form of the presence of the Body of Christ is not the form of an indirect effect (the fact about flesh and blood in the form of bread and wine), but the gift of grace (unity and love of the Church) realized in communion. The Most advanced Body of Christ, in the Eucharist, is not consecrated bread and wine, but the Church Body of Christ, the consequence of communion.”
citing another Italian author, Giovanni Salmeri, Grillo writes that the Second Vatican Council created a fresh theology, but did not make fresh devotion.
"The liturgical movement and, above all, the Second Vatican Council's liturgical reform, changed theology, changed rites, changed standards in part – but did not change piety," the liturgist convinces. In his opinion, present we have a fresh theology, but the forms of Eucharistic piety have been the same, which in effect is profoundly inconsistent. It should be distinguished, says Grillo, between “The Tabernaculum Eucharist” which expresses outdated and inadequate theology, and “The pulpit and altar Eucharist”. "The separation of the sacrament from its usage is simply a theoretical error," he states.
“Being the “apostolate of the Eucharist”, carrying monstrancy and cyborium at the side – this suggests that devotio moderna is the sanctity of the Catholic Church forever, alternatively than the historical form, which has mostly exhausted its ecclesiastical effectiveness”, says Grillo. The author uses the word "devotio moderna" in a broad sense, which seems to include all popular forms of piety created from the late mediate Ages until the 19th century.
In 1 of his next texts, however, Grillo himself asks whether it is by any chance that the post-war and culminating in the post-collaborative improvement of the quest for fresh spirituality was simply a utopia. The author notes the problematic fact that post-collaborative liturgical improvement did not produce fresh piety that would be adequate for theology behind the fresh liturgy. This is simply a crucial problem in his opinion.
Conclusion
The discussion that followed in Italy around Grill's texts, and which was besides mostly referred to on his blog, besides took a synodity theme. 1 of the authors pointed out that the chance to "finish" post-compulsory liturgical improvement is precisely the dynamics which the global Synodical Process has launched.
On 7 July 2025, Pope Leon XIV authorized a fresh synodal paper from the Vatican. He besides established a peculiar investigation Group to consider the anticipation of a "synodical" transformation of the liturgy.
The "Final Document" of the Synod on Synodality of 26 October 2024 states that a synod liturgy would appreciate the Community dimension of the sacrament more fully, which would gotta translate into a stronger engagement of the lay in liturgical activities.
On this basis, we can so draw any interesting conclusions.
1. The Synod Revolution is completely incompatible with conventional Holy Mass.
2. It is not expected that synod processes will give more space to conventional Catholics
3. The intent of synodality is to "finish" the liturgical reform, especially by reducing the function of a priest, expanding the secular function and placing stronger emphasis on communion as a community.
4. The fresh liturgical piety, which can be enforced by synodality, is on a deep level the enemy of conventional piety, close to the heart of most Poles.
5. Due to the “rooting” of forms of piety considered by the “modernists” of the liturgical to be obsolete, it is not essential to anticipate a extremist departure from the conventional knowing of the Eucharist.
6. possibly a fresh liturgical diversity will be created on the basis of the synodic process. More communities or parishes will emerge, where the liturgy will become more "synodical", or incompatible with conventional piety.
7. A large deal depends on the counselors around the pope. If these are people reasoning like Andrea Grillo, there are clear moves to advance the "synodical" liturgy, which will be perceived as painful by many Poles.
8. If the Pope surrounds himself with more average liturgical advisers, we will be faced with a slow drift towards the elimination of conventional forms of piety.
9. A increasing share of the charismatic movement in the life of the Church is expected. The charismatic movement combines conventional forms of piety (adoration) with ecstatic forms of piety (concerts, praises) which may appear as more "Community".
10. As the script of average improvement seems most likely, the synod liturgy will most likely be directed towards the participatory-charismatic liturgy.
Paweł Chmielewski
