A music video starts with Pope Francis speaking and quickly transitions to a young Carlo Acutis dancing, smiling. Suddenly a Franciscan priest pops up in a baseball cap, rapping, his huge smile reflecting Carlo’s; it's hard to look away, hard not to smile too.
Father Manuel’s original song centers around soon-to-be-St. Carlo Acutis’ famous quote “The Eucharist is the highway to heaven.”
Don’t take my word for it - watch the video - but the words and the beat will quickly get stuck in your head. Here’s the chorus:
Go go go boy go go go high
Hop hop hop inside the ride
The ride is o on on the highway to heaven
My kids have asked me to play it on repeat several times!
Like most performance pieces, there’s a good story behind the song -- both Fr. Manuel’s and Carlo Acutis’, both centering on that highway to heaven.
Fr. Manuel is a Franciscan friar from Bangalore, India, but is currently serving in Vienna, Austria. He says his faith journey really began when he was 17 or so and he started asking some big questions: “What is life? Where are we going? What is after death? Why are some people born poor? Why are some people born physically challenged? Why was I born in India?”
He came from a Catholic family, but like many young people, he needed to find the answers to his questions for himself.
He was originally planning to become a doctor, but his search took him on another road. It just so happened that his neighbors were Franciscans and what started out as neighborly volleyball and football games, eventually became an answer to his prayers.
Fr. Manuel said simply, “I fell in love with Jesus and also St. Francis of Assisi.”
From there, Manuel was ordained a priest in 2009 and during formation and also his early years as a parish priest, he became very interested in music -- particularly as a ministry.
When the Franciscan Provincial of Austria came to visit, he invited Fr. Manuel to study music in Austria. He did, and eventually became a member of the Austrian province. For years, he’s been utilizing music and the internet to evangelize with joy – inviting others onto the highway to heaven.
Evangelizing with joy on the internet, of course, sounds a bit like Blessed Carlo Acutis himself. In his song, Fr. Manuel sings,
Took on the challenge, young and so bold
With his heart on fire, his legacy told
Trusted in the journey through struggles and pain
Found solace in Jesus, his guiding refrain.
With a smile so bright, a powerful proof.
Teaching us all to cherish the truth
Sneaker saint on a digital quest
Guiding young hearts, how to love and invest
The music video gives us a glimpse into Carlo’s life - not just through the lyrics, but also a montage of videos and photos of this digital evangelizer. Carlo as an altar server, Carlo as a young man, even a young Carlo sticking his tongue out for the camera.
Fr. Manuel recognizes Carlo Acutis as a saint that the young Church needs today. He spoke of the churches that are empty in some places around the world, and will become emptier if young people grow up without the faith. He explains,
I want these young people to get up and now become the future generation. So I wanted to do a song for young people all over the world. And Carlo Acutis is such a beautiful example. Like, he's a saint with jeans, a sneaker saint, a digital saint. So I slowly read about his life, his love for the Eucharist, and his beautiful quotation about Eucharist. Eucharist, the highway to heaven.
Fr. Manuel says his target audience is people who don’t attend church. He wants “to spread the love of God … just being Catholic on the internet.” He wants to give voice to the faith and do so with meaning and with humor.
Through his fun, faith-filled presence on YouTube, Fr. Manuel is giving Carlo Acutis vibes, “Turning simple moments into something divine.”
