Students from across the Diocese of St. Catharines have stepped into the shoes of St. Carlo Acutis through a new challenge sporting his namesake, one that has turned each of their talents into creative acts of faith during the initiative’s debut earlier this year. 

Born out of a collaboration between the Diocese of St. Catharines and the Niagara Catholic District School Board, and inspired by the young saint's’ canonization last fall, the Carlo Acutis Challenge set out to show students the holiness of saints isn’t solely reserved for adults or those from the distant past. Rather than a traditional written essay assignment, the initiative uniquely called local Catholic youth to create their own original projects that expressed aspects or gifts of the faith they were passionate about.

Drawing on the familiar format of the board’s history-based heritage fairs, the challenge quickly took off as students across Grades 5 to 12 responded with impressive creativity. A wide range of efforts sprung forth, with projects from self-coded video games themed around St. Acutis to custom paintings, board games, blessing bags, websites, photography projects and moving short stories designed to express students’ gifts just as their millennial saint did just a few decades ago.  

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For Nicholas Ali, the director of evangelization and faith formation for the diocese and a previous chaplain for the Niagara Catholic board, the first Carlo Acutis Challenge was a project he believed each student could strongly connect with on different fronts. 

“ We began talking last summer about how holiness isn't something that we have to wait or be old enough for. We're all called to be saints, and (Acutis) is the perfect model of that for our young people,” he told The Catholic Register. 

“After thinking about how we could highlight this young man who lived ordinary holiness in a way that our young people can tap into, we thought what better way than for them to share an area of their faith that they are passionate about and that really burns within them?”

Launching to coincide with the saint’s canonization and feast day, projects ramped up in the new year, showing students' relatability and engagement across the entire board as they grew closer to Acutis and his story. 

“ I went to some schools’ local faith fairs and students would light up and ask me things like, ‘Did you know (Acutis) loved Nutella and video games?’ and explain how they did too. It was a blessing to hear just how much they began to see themselves in him, understanding that he is a saint and maybe they could be too,” Ali said. 

A special showcase event on May 2 at Denis Morris Catholic High School saw 32 selected projects on display during a day that the director touted as vibrantly buzzing, with strong attendance of 100 to 200 parents, students, and visitors throughout the day. 

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Also present on the day was Fr. Paul MacNeil, the diocese’s vicar for education, who met and greeted some of the board’s winners and fan favourites. Among those included first place winner Denise Gapasin, a Grade 9 student from Blessed Trinity Catholic High School, who created a photography project to show God's presence in everyday life, specifically in people, nature and love. 

Ali was also impressed by Elio Caruso and Peter Faraj’s podcast project on lesser-known saints, which remains available online and continues to bear fruit, as well as Angelina Jones and McKenna Roddick, who hard-coded a website from scratch while creating resources like colouring sheets and Rosary tutorials. 

Also showcased in the diocese’s journal Vineyard was William Hoffman’s short story submission, in which the Grade 7 student used a bridge analogy echoing that of St. Catherine of Siena’s in an evangelistic way. 

While the forgiving criteria may present the challenge as nothing more than your typical board-wide talent fair, the spiritual fruits seen as a result point more closely to a fire of faith alive in the hearts of St. Catharines' young people than anything else. 

“ We've got an incredible shepherd in Bishop (Gerard) Bergie who has set that tone of setting hearts on fire, and there is no age barrier for that transformative encounter with Christ. To see that in our young people was so powerful and moving, and that was my vision for this. We are inviting them into the mission of the Church and reminding them that through their gifts, they are part of making God known and loved by all,” Ali said. 

Originally planned as a one-year event as a simple tie to the canonization, the diocese is now planning to bring the challenge back as an annual tradition thanks to its success. Ali shared his hopes for an earlier February launch for better momentum next year, as well as stronger parish involvement and advertising to reach more students who fall outside of the Niagara area.

“ We have got our feet under us now. We know what the (delivery) feels like, and that gives us a chance to really pump this up,” he said. “ St. Carlo Acutis was making disciples as a young person and we need to extend that same invitation today.”

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Logistics aside, the impact seen on Catholic students in the area was reason enough to look into taking the initiative to the next level. 

“We want to come back next year and continue to let them know that God loves them, desires great things for them and that their gifts and talents can shine through in that mission,” Ali said.