A relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis was stolen from the Santo Domingo Savio parish, in the Argentine Archdiocese of Paraná. His pastor seeks to recover it and emphasizes that he has no material value but a deep spiritual meaning for the community.
Fr. Walter Minigutti, pastor of the place, told local media that the robbery occurred minutes after noon on Friday, July 25 and was recorded in the security cameras. There you can see that a couple entered the temple and stole a screwed box containing the relic, enthroned in 2021.
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“It really for us is a very sad day and we need our saint to return to the parish again. We are spreading the images of the security camera, where this couple can be observed,” said Fr. Minigutti in dialogue with The eleven.
The formal complaint was already made before the authorities and the fact is under police investigation. Within that framework, the recordings of the cameras will be analyzed to identify those responsible for theft.
The priest asked that the reliquary return: “I beg who has taken the relics that return them. They have no economic value, but a very large spiritual value for our community,” he said. It is a first grade relic, which corresponds to a piece of hair and nail of the saint.
In conversation with ACI Press, this Thursday, July 31, the priest said that “there are still no news”, and prayed “to the Lord and Blessed who can return this dear relic.”
The figure of Carlo Acutis is very significant for the parish, so much that a secondary school is being built that will bear his name.
The relic was in a place specially prepared for its exhibition and veneration, with a glass chest that had a reliquary inside with the image of the young Blessed dressed in everyday clothes, honoring its characterization of “Santo de Jean and Sneakers”.
“The place was thought so that the faithful could contemplate it. He is a very current saint, close to young people, and his life transmits a powerful message about faith in the present tense,” said Fr. Minigutti in his interview with El Once.
Dead at 15, Acutis was a great devotee from the Eucharist: “He went to Mass every day, prayed the rosary, made Eucharistic worship and used the Internet to evangelize. It is an example for our youth,” said the parish priest.
“This throws us down because it is something very dear to us, but I have a lot of faith and a lot of confidence in the neighbor of Paraná and the Santa Lucía neighborhood, so that please give us a hand to recover them,” he begged.
In a few days, on August 12, four years of the enthronement of the relic are completed. For this reason, the 12 of each month is celebrated a Mass dedicated to Carlo Acutis, whose liturgical celebration is October 12, in memory of his death.
“A Blessed is one of the many blessings that God gives to the Church, and having his relics is to have part of his history among us,” said the parish priest, detailing that “the sentimental and religious and spiritual value that it has for the community is incalculable.”
Finally, he called “to reflection and solidarity: if anyone knows these people or finds these relics, please, to bring them closer to the parish.”
Julieta Villar
I am a journalist, a graduate in Communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non -governmental organizations. Since 2016 I dedicate myself to Catholic journalism, first in the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as a correspondent for ACI Press for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.