by Michael Rizzo
In my nearly 20 years of teaching at St. John’s University, I have seen how much my students have come to embrace computers and cellphones. It’s their window to the world. The influence of the internet, and more broadly, social media, is enormous. It offers a seemingly endless resource of material, but is also loaded with the dangers of misinformation and worse.
I also take time to speak about St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalism. He was a voluminous letter writer explaining and defending the Catholic faith. It’s also no surprise that Gen Z students might not see the relevance of a 17th-century bishop writing letters by hand in our time of texting by voice commands.
If only there were someone they could relate to in our digital world. I believe there is, on Sept. 7 Carlo Acutis — the first Millennial saint — will be canonized.
The canonization of Carlo is not specifically linked to journalism, but what a role model I see him as for a generation that lives on their digital devices.
Like St. Francis, this young man embraced a passion for communicating the news, which for both of them was the good news of the Gospels.
Carlo used the resources of our computer age, the new world of electronic interactions, and his youthful enthusiasm to forge pathways online to find Jesus Christ.
As a teenager, he created websites that helped with evangelization. He observed and spoke about the threats to cyberspace that devalue the sanctity and uniqueness of the human person. His short life also communicated a way to make our online presence better: by always seeing, doing, and living it through our faith.
“Everyone is born as an original, but many people end up dying as photocopies. Don’t let that happen to you!” Those words by Carlo reveal a wisdom far beyond his short 15 years among us.
The creativity he embodied, and that I want for my students, is applying their unique perspective to telling stories that need to be reported, using critical thinking skills to solve problems and issues causing strife, and crafting new ideas that will make the future better for all of us.
For Carlo, technology was not the black hole of distraction and disconnection from human interaction. It was a means of finding our solidarity as God’s creations with his guiding light.
Just as Carlo utilized the tools of technology to express his love for the Eucharist and the rosary, we too can be inspired to take action. We can use the web to learn the things that truly enrich our lives, to reach out to others who have no other connections, and to help those in need find the Lord in their lives.
Michael Rizzo is an Associate Professor and Director of the Journalism Program at St. John’s University.