Two teenagers

Alexia Gonzalez-Barros and Carlo Acutis

Recently, Pope Francis signed a decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Alexia González-Barros and Carlo Acutis, two teenagers who are on their way to be canonized.
Alexia González-Barros was born in Madrid in 1971. Her parents were members of Opus Dei and passed on their faith to their five children. She made her first Communion in Rome and the following day attended the weekly general audience on May 9, 1979. She ran up to St John Paul II as he greeted pilgrims and received a blessing and a kiss from the pope. Several years later, her life dramatically changed when doctors discovered a tumor that gradually paralyzed her. Throughout her illness, she offered her sufferings for the Church and the pope, and would often pray, “Jesus, I want to feel better, I want to be healed; but if you do not want that, I want what you want.” She died on December 5, 1985, aged 14.
Pope Francis also recognized the heroic virtues of Carlo Acutis, a teenager who used his computer skills to catalog Eucharistic miracles around the world before his death at the age of 15 due to leukemia. According to the website of his canonization process, Acutis placed the Eucharist “at the center of his life and called it ‘my highway to heaven.'” Before his death in 2006, Acutis offered his sufferings for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Church.