Within the framework of the canonization of September 7, the Church in Panama officially announced the creation of the Carlo Acutis parish in the Nuevo Tocumen sector, a historical fact that seeks to accompany adolescents and families in a special way.
He announcement was given by the Metropolitan ArchbishopMons. José Domingo Ulloa, during the Mass held at the Santa María la Antigua Basilica Cathedral, which was filled with songs and applause of the young people of the Jesús Buen Pastor chapel, a community that will become the new parish.
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“In Panama we feel Carlo as a close brother and a privileged intercessor of our adolescents and young people,” said Mons. Ulloa, stressing that the life of the new saint “tells us that holiness is a privilege of all, a universal call, for anyone who lives with authentic faith.”
The prelate recalled that Acutis was “an instrument of evangelization in the digital world” and that his testimony teaches that “holiness is possible in everyday life: with jeans and shoes, a cell phone in the pocket and a computer in the hands, but always with the heart in Christ.”
Mons. Ulloa also sent a message to Antonia Salzano, mother of San Carlo, assuring him: “Dear Antonia, in the name of the Church that pilgrims in Panama and my own, I want to join the immense joy that overwhelms her heart and that of the entire universal church for the canonization of her son.”
On the future parish, he stressed that the community of Jesus Good Shepherd “began as a simple chapel in homes and parks of a residential, and today is a sign of hope for Panamanian youth, inspired by Carlo’s testimony.”
The new parish will be accompanied by pastorally by Fr. Jonathan Pulido with the vicaries Wilder Beltrán and Julián Vargas. It will have a wide pastoral life that includes catechesis, youth groups, family and social pastoral, as well as ecclesial movements such as the neocatechumenal road, Emaus and the Legion of Mary.
Finally, the archbishop said that this parish will be a permanent reminder that “holiness is not a distant ideal, but a possible vocation here and now.”
Diego López Marina
I was born in 1991. I have a degree in Communication Sciences. Since 2015 I work as a digital journalist. I started my career in the newspaper El Comercio in Peru. In 2016, I began as editor in ACI Press and I perform as a web editor since 2018. From 2024, I write the Newsletter for Social Media. I specialize in Catholic news focused on the defense of life and family, international politics, technology, popular culture and the Vatican.