WILLIAMSBURG — Khloe Chavez will be watching television coverage of the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis on Sept. 7 with more than a passing interest.
The Williamsburg teenager will be paying close attention because she enjoys a special connection to the Italian teen who is about to become the Catholic Church’s first saint of the Millennial generation.
That connection comes courtesy of his mother, Antonia Salzano, who reached out to Khloe in 2023 with a video message.In the video, which was filmed on an iPhone by a Chavez family friend, Salzano greeted Khloe by name and told her. “I know you love Carlo. Carlo loves you too.”At the time, Khloe was an 11-year-old sixth grader at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Academy in Corona. At school, she had learned about Blessed Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15 and was known for his devotion to the Eucharist.
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Khloe, who is now 13 and attends Middle School 577 in Williamsburg, said she is looking forward to the canonization.”I can’t wait to see it. I think it’s really cool, especially since his mother talked to me in the video,” she explained, adding that the personal connection to Salzano has piqued her interest in Blessed Carlo Acutis.
Khloe came to Salzano’s attention two years ago when a friend of the Chavez family approached her at a religious conference in Manhattan and told her about the girl. Khloe had become devoted to Blessed Carlo Acutis after hearing a speaker at her school talk about him and how he created a website to chronicle Eucharistic miracles around the world.
After the talk, Khloe was so inspired that she placed prayer cards around the apartment where she lives with her parents, Keila and Johnny Chavez, and her eight siblings and prayed every day for Blessed Carlo Acutis’ intercession in her life.She still does. “We pray as a family to ask a lot of saints for help but he’s very special to me,” she explained.
There is one prayer card that Khloe cherishes more than the others. Salzano sent Khloe a relic of her son — a prayer card containing a tiny piece of a sweater he wore. “It’s really great that I have something that belonged to him,” she said.
Johnny Chavez has watched as his daughter’s excitement over the canonization has been building up as the day draws closer.
“To have that personal connection to his mom puts a whole new light on it for Khloe,” he explained. “And I’ve seen her faith grow since that encounter. It’s a beautiful thing to see.”
The whole family has been swept up in the excitement, Johnny Chavez said. “We’re just thrilled that this ordinary boy is going to become a saint. And because Khloe had this little encounter with his mother, we feel like our family can gravitate more to him,” he explained.
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And that excitement is bound to increase. Johnny and Keila Chavez are taking Khloe and her brother Josiah, 15, to Rome for the Jubilee of Youth on July 28-Aug. 3.
The Chavez family, who are parishioners of Saints Peter and Paul Church in Williamsburg, are followers of the Neocatechumenal Way and are going to Italy with a contingent of Neocatechumenal folks from the Diocese of Brooklyn.
The trip include attending a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV, who will canonize Blessed Carlo Acutis in September.
“It’s always something that they can look back on — that experience of going to Rome, being at the jubilee, having an encounter with the Pope. It’s going to be a memory for them for the rest of their lives,” Keila Havez said.
With the canonization less than two months away, Khloe frequently thinks about the video message she received from Salzano two years ago and how the mother of a soon-to-be saint urged her to love the Eucharist as much as Carlo did.
“I do think about it a lot and try to live by it,” she said.