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Eucharist as “my highway to heaven”. At theage of 15 he fell ill with a grave form ofleukaemia and within less than two weekshe died, on October 12th, 2006. His last request was to be buried in Assisi. His em-balmed body now lies – dressed in jeans,trainers and a tracksuit top – in the churchof “Santa Maria Maggiore”, on the spot

where Saint Francis left behind his own fineclothing in order to commit himself entirelyto God.

Like other young people, Carlo was fasci-nated by the world of computers. He took akeen interest in algorithms and computerprogramming. Yet here too his love for theEucharist was central to what he did. Agedjust 11, he created a website – now trans-lated into 17 different languages – on whichhe documented no fewer than 136 recordedEucharistic miracles from every continent ofthe world (www.miracolieucaristici.org). “I believe that many people don’t fully

A New Year opens before us, and as we canall see, it is not likely to be an easy one. Solet us turn all the more, full of hope, towardsthe unchanging One who will always surelyguide us through the hardest of times,Almighty God. Jesus himself promised us,before ascending into heaven,“Behold, I am with you always,to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).And he remains faithful to thispromise even to this day, forwherever a priest speaks thewords of Consecration over thebread and wine, the Lord is made truly present among us, Body and Blood, Souland Divinity.

This reality shaped the life of a young Italianwho was beatified only very recently, on 10th

October 2020, in Assisi. His name is CarloAcutis. Born in London in 1991, he grew upan only child in a wealthy family in Milan. Hisfirst Holy Communion, at the age of seven,awakened in him a profound longing for theEucharist. Every day he attended Holy Mass,in order to be able to receive Jesus. “To beunited always with Jesus – this is my life’splan”, he would say. He described the

understand the value of Holy Mass”, Carloused to say. He was convinced that “If wespend time in the sunshine, we get a tan. But if we spend time with Jesus in the Eucharist, then we become holy.” His ownlife was the proof of this. His cousin Flaviatestified that she could not recall ever havingseen Carlo unhappy. “Sadness is when we

look into ourselves. Happiness iswhen we look towards God.”

Dear Friends, may this super -natural joy accompany you allthroughout this coming yearand give you strength to embrace

and offer up even the painful situations toGod, as Carlo himself did, “for the Pope andfor the Church”. And especially for all thepriests who through the Holy Mass make theLord present for us on earth. And thank youall for supporting the seminarians who likewise wish to serve the Lord in the Eucharistic ministry.

With my grateful blessing for a grace-filledNew Year,

Father Martin Maria BartaEcclesiastical Assistant

“Wherever a priest speaksthe words of Consecration,the Lord is made truly present among us.”

Carlo Acutis: the Eucharistwas his highway to heaven.“How can we be sad if we

always have God besideus? Basically, we’re more fortunate than the disciples of Jesus’ owntime, for we can alwaysencounter Jesus personally.We only have to go intothe nearest church.”Blessed Carlo Acutis

No 1 • January 2021

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Seminarians

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Uruguay

He is often to be found here: OurLady’s shrine in the local cathedral.

“Wherever God may send me”: Henry Bukenya.

In three years Henry

will be a priest: the

seminarian in the parish.

Henry Bukenya from Uganda is a good example of this. He was willing to be found,yet no one could possibly have foreseen it.For his mother died giving birth to him. “Inever knew her”. His father did not want toknow him, for he already had three otherwives, and seven children. It was his grand-mother who took little Henry in, had himbaptised and brought him to the school, tothe parish. It was there he heard about theMother of God. “Mary is my Mother. When-ever I had problems I went to her. And alsoto say thank you to her. I still do so today.

“This is myvocation”

She accompanies me throughout my life.”Henry was introduced to the Rosary Club, agroup of children with a special love for OurLady who were taking part in the Rosarycampaign “A Million Children praying theRosary”. Over 10,000 children in Ugandawere now meeting twice weekly to pray theRosary. Henry was one of them, faithful yearafter year. Blythe Kaufmann, who foundedthe Rosary Club, soon spotted him. Not allthe children prayed with quite so much devotion as Henry did. “Mary always leadsus to Jesus”, he says, with a smile that saysstill more. For it was Mary who led him torecognise within his heart the vocation tothe priesthood. So he began his philosophy studies, hopingto become a priest. But there are many vocations in Uganda, and the selection pro-cess is a strict one. His family situation, hisfather with his three wives, was what toldagainst him. He was not admitted to theseminary. But Henry did not give up. Once again heturned to his Mother, and again, and again.He managed to scrape by with casual work,helping out in the parish, and above all inthe Rosary Club. Blythe sensed his genuinevocation and spoke to Bishop JaimeFuentes from Uruguay, who was visitingUganda at the time. The bishop began an intensive correspondence with Henry, a

young man by now, and could see that hewas serious about it. They decided betweenthem that Henry would travel to Uruguayand study theology in the diocese of Minas.But here too there were problems, for hewas the only seminarian; that hardly consti-tutes a seminary. Once more Mary came tohis aid. Henry has found a home with theHoly Family congregation and is studyingtheology at the university faculty. Withinthree years he wants to complete his studiesand then “serve God for the rest of my life,wherever He may send me. This is my voca-tion”.

Henry was willing to be found and be led toUruguay. It is a country so heavily secu-larised that it can almost be described asatheistic or neo-pagan. Priests have a hardtime here, and black priests still more so.Henry knows this; so he prays and studies.The diocese can scarcely afford his univer-sity fees and has asked us for a subsidy of£1,100. Henry merely pleads humbly, “HolyMary, Seat of Wisdom, pray for me.” •

“The love of God sometimes followspaths one could never have imagined,but it always reaches those who arewilling to be found.” So said PopeBenedict XVI at the 50th World Day ofPrayer for Vocations.

2 Any donation you kindly give will go to support these, or similar pr

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For those with faith, life is a love story. For faith is the “wonderful way of realising love in life through the vocation to follow Christ”, according to PopeSaint John Paul II.

This is above all true of the loving dedicationof the priest, day by day and throughout life,as that great Doctor of the Church SaintThomas Aquinas put it in the last knownwords we have from him: “For love of TheeI have watched, studied and laboured. Theehave I preached; Thee have I taught. Neverhave I said anything against Thee ... but if Ihave written aught erroneous... I submit allto the judgement and correction of the HolyRoman Church, in whose obedience I nowpass from this life.” It is for a life such as this,in love of God and obedience to the Church,that all the seminarians are now preparing.They already felt this in their hearts whenthey said yes to the call of God, and theyknow that as priests they will “continue thework of redemption on earth” as the holyCuré of Ars once put it. This is the core oftheir vocation, the seed that is nurtured andtended with such loving care in the seminary.For “ultimately, it is not administrators andmanagers we are training, but brothers andfathers, who will accompany the people ontheir journey through life” (Pope Francis).In the Carmelite seminary in Calcutta(Kolkata), in India’s West Bengal, 18 youngmen are currently training for this life. They

A joyful yes to God’s love

come from all over India to the central seminary of the order, which is dedicated toSaint Thérèse of Lisieux, the Patroness ofthe Missions. Here they grow as brothers, inunity of spirit, regardless of which corner ofIndia they come from. In this unity theydraw strength for their future life. For nowthough, their life is filled with study, gardenwork, and above all prayer.

It is a training that equips them to accom-pany others through life, for later it will betheir task to “comfort the fearful, embracethe weak, refute enemies, guard against theimportunate, instruct the ignorant, rousethe slothful, admonish the proud, encour-age the failing, pacify the quarrelsome, helpthe poor, free the oppressed, acknowledgethe good, suffer the bad and, oh – love themall!”, to quote Saint Augustine’s descriptionof his daily life.

But even this training in love still costsmoney. The seminary can cover almost 80percent of its annual costs. They have askedus for the remaining £4,800, so they canmake ends meet. Surely, their joyful yes toGod’s love must be worth that much to us?•

India “Rejoice in the Lord always...”(Phil 4:4)

In the garden:tending God’s creation.

Study: “For love of Thee”, and all mankind.

3 ar projects, and enable the pastoral work of Aid to the Church in Need.

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Need, love and thanks − your letters

“Thank you with all my heart”, writesFather Kennedy Seketa, rector of SaintDominic’s seminary in Lusaka, theZambian capital. And you can read hisrelief between the lines. For now,thanks to the minibus, which will be going to all eleven dioceses of the coun-try, his seminarians can at last fulfil therequirements of their pastoral year andsupplement their academic learningwith works of charity. Last year therewere 29 seminarians; this year therewill be 35 on their pastoral year. Alto-gether there are 67 studying at SaintDominic’s Seminary in Lusaka. Many ofthem spend their weekends working in the ten parishes of the diocese ofLusaka, and here too the minibus will play a vital part. With such intensive usage, Father Kennedy’s promise to “treat the vehicle with great care”is not one that has been made lightly.

Thomas Heine-Geldern,Executive President, ACN (International)

Dear Friends,On 31st October 2020 Cardinal Schön-born ordained two Jesuit priests inInnsbruck, Austria. Perhaps especiallybecause of the strict coronavirus measures that had to be observed, thisproved to be both liturgically and spiritually a very moving ceremony,which brought great joy and confidenceto all who were present.

Afterwards, the two newly ordainedpriests were asked by the press to saywhat was “the attraction in becominga priest in 2020”. One responded that itwas the call of Jesus to a genuine rela-tionship with him and his fellow menthat had given birth to his vocation.The other remarked that the decisivefactor for him had been the privilege ofwitnessing to the Gospel with his ownlife and thereby being always open toall around him.

Thanks to your prayers and your gen-erous help, we are able to help manyseminarians all over the world to dis-cover and live a similar vocation – andthis despite the “spiritual anaesthesia”of our secularised world (as CardinalCantalamessa, OFM Cap, has put it).

Permit me also to add that one of thesepriests, as an expression of this close-ness and gratitude, expressly includedthe benefactors of ACN in the blessingat his first Holy Mass and also asked meto share this joy with you.

Brought closer to persecuted Christians I know ACN from a number of differentevents, and I regularly follow your TVbroadcasts [Where God Weeps on EWTN].It took me a little while to realise just howwidely your charity spans the whole earth.I wasn’t always so clear about the extent towhich Christians are being persecuted anddiscriminated against in their faith. Thanksto your reporting, I feel much more closelyunited with them and I now enfold themstill more fervently in my prayers.

An ACN supporter in Germany

For the marginalised in societyThank you for your prayers and your con-cern. It warms my heart to know that thereis always someone praying for us. It givesme courage in my faith and strengthens mytrust in God. You are the witnesses of Godwhom the world so greatly needs, the heartbeating in sympathy for those on the mar-gins of society. Yet for us, these poor are theelect of God. They may seem worthless

when viewed by capitalist standards, butfor God they are the sustaining pillars ofour common home. I thank God for havingreached me through ACN. May God blessyou!

An ACN supporter in Belgium

Still happy to help, despite his problemsYesterday I transferred 50 Euros to ACN tohelp two Syrian families, and in responseto your appeal for donations. Although Ihaven’t yet received my salary for thismonth and I’m not sure if I will be continu-ing to work for the company where I’vebeen working for around twenty-five years,I couldn’t simply sit back and do nothing.In Syria, and sadly in Portugal as well,there are people living in greater povertythan I am. And so I am still happy to help!I’m only sorry I can’t give more than 50Euros. In return I simply ask your prayersfor my family and for Portugal.

An ACN benefactor in Portugal

On the road to charity

Mirror Editors: Jürgen Liminski & John Newton | Publisher: Aid to the Church in NeedPrinted in the UK by Cliffe Enterprise, Eastbourne BN22 8UYISSN 0252-2535 De licentia competentis auctoritatis ecclesiasticae

Where to send your contribution for the Church in NeedOur address: Aid to the Church in Need, 12–14 Benhill Avenue, Sutton, Surrey SM1 4DA.Please use the Freepost envelope – it saves you money and helps us. If you give by standing order or direct debit or have sent a donation recently, please acceptour sincere thanks. This Mirror is for your interest and information. 12–14 Benhill Avenue, Sutton, Surrey SM1 4DA

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