Vatican announces Canonisation of Blessed Acutis is postponed

by CNS · Published April 21, 2025 · Updated April 21, 2025

Votive candles and religious images, including one of Blessed Carlo Acutis, are seen at the base of a statue of St. John Paul II outside Rome’s Gemelli hospital Feb. 27, 2025, while Pope Francis was being treated there for double pneumonia. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

By Carol Glatz, CNS – With the death of Pope Francis, the canonisation of Blessed Carlo Acutis, which was scheduled for April 27, has been postponed.

“Following the death of the Supreme Pontiff Francis, notice is hereby given that the Eucharistic celebration and the rite of the canonisation of Blessed Carlo Acutis, scheduled for April 27, 2025, second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Adolescents, is suspended,” the Vatican press office announced April 21.

A group of South Africans, leaving on Wednesday, was going to attend the canonisation. “The pilgrims will be disappointed not to witness the canonisation of Bl Carlo Acutis, but on the other hand, they will experience something very rare: the funeral of a pope,” said Gail Fowler of Fowler Tours SA. “That will be a special privilege for them. They will be able to see the Holy Father’s body lying in state, attend the funeral, and join the procession from St Peter’s to St Mary Major. So South Africa will be represented.”

The Mass for the Jubilee of Adolescents, however, would still be held, Matteo Bruni, head of the press office told reporters, clarifying that what had been cancelled was a Mass for a canonisation. The Holy Year and its associated events and Masses would continue, he added. The Jubilee of Adolescents was scheduled for April 25-27 in Rome.

The Dicastery for Evangelisation’s section for new evangelisation, which is organising the Holy Year 2025, shared its sorrow for the death of Pope Francis.

“We join in prayer” for his passing “in unity with all of God’s people and the whole world,” it said in a note released April 21.

It confirmed the program for the Jubilee of Adolescents has remained mostly the same, including the April 26 pilgrimage to the Holy Door and Mass on April 27 in St. Peter’s Square.

What has changed, it said, is there will be no canonisation ceremony on April 27, and the “musical celebration” scheduled to be held in Rome’s Circus Maximus on April 26 is cancelled out of respect for the period of mourning.

He will be the first millennial to become a saint.