Carlo Acutis—the 15-year-old who died in 2006 and became the Catholic Church's first millennial saint this month—built websites cataloging Eucharistic miracles, coded to spread his faith…and played Halo. Referred to as "the Patron Saint of the Internet," his tomb livestreams on YouTube. He lies in Nikes and a zip-up sweatshirt, credited with two miracles that doctors described as "medically inexplicable."
Notably, Carlo kept a strict discipline online—never more than an hour a day—and warned against losing originality in a world of imitation: "We are all born as originals, but many die as photocopies." That mix of digital savvy and restraint, of coding fluency and spiritual reflection, is partly why the Vatican sees him as emblematic of a new age.
But the Church's embrace of Acutis also signals recognition of something larger: the internet has dismantled traditional information gatekeepers. A teenager with coding skills can reach millions without institutional backing. The printing press broke the medieval Church's monopoly on information distribution. The internet eliminates intermediaries altogether.
From Medieval Monopolies to Digital Distribution
In medieval Europe, the Church controlled information outright through hand-copied Latin manuscripts. The printing press enabled the emergence of nation-states by standardizing languages and creating modern nations and cultures. Now, the internet empowers anyone with a connection to bypass traditional authorities entirely and find their clique or anyone with shared interests online.
For Acutis, that meant logging known Catholic miracles. A British-born Italian teenager teaching himself programming, building digital infrastructure for faith. The Church that once held information monopoly through monasteries now competes in an attention economy where a teenager's Minecraft server might command more mindshare than a cathedral.
Strategic Recognition and America's Competitive Advantage
Pope Francis' decision to canonize Acutis while the Vatican increasingly focuses on AI shows institutional awareness–relevance requires engaging where people actually gather: online. The internet–and AI with it–will prove more transformative than the printing press, which took 400 years to fully reshape Europe. We're only a few decades into the internet age.
Meanwhile, China doubles down on digital authoritarianism, desperately maintaining control through surveillance and censorship–in turn affording the West a golden opportunity. Embracing networked empowerment, as Rome just did, could be our decisive advantage.
Put simply, Carlo's canonization is a recognition that legitimate authority now flows from authentic connection, not institutional position. Power structures can either embrace this reality—or be overtaken by it. The internet is rebuilding society's scaffolding. And the Pope is ahead of the curve. 
