​Pope Leo XIV has called a Consistory of Cardinals for June 13th. On this day they will decide the new date for the canonisation of Carlo. At the Council of Priests of the Archdiocese of Birmingham last Wednesday, the canonical permission was given for our parish name to be changed to St Carlo, Wolverhampton. Let’s pray cardinals choose a date that is very soon so that we can reorganise our celebrations!

​OUR SHRINE FOR SAINT CARLO is nearly finished. All we are waiting for now is the red carpet to be delivered that will go under the altar. The shrine is the result of months of hard work from local artisans, and it is wonderful that they all live in our parish! Many thanks to Peter Pennington, Barry Owen, Daryl Hill, and two other parishioners who have crafted the shrine so beautifully. The altar cloth is made of very precious material and if we had ordered it to be made by an ecclesiastical fabric company, it would have literally cost us thousands!
It has been designed to represent our three church communities and to show Saint Carlo’s great love for the Eucharist and for the two great saints of Assisi. He loved Assisi so much that he asked to be buried there and now his tomb is in the Church of the Renunciation, halfway between the churches of St Francis and St Clare.
Let us pray that when pilgrims come to pray at our shine they will also be led to devotion of St Francis and St Clare, so that all three saints will accompany them through life.

​On May 18, 2025, at 3 p.m., the Clergy, Religious, and Parishioners of the Parish of Blessed Carlo Acutis gathered at St. Benedict Biscop's Anglican church to commence the Rosary Procession in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The service began with a short introductory prayer, followed by a scripture reading and reflection. The procession then moved through the surrounding streets, with the flower crown, crucifix, and altar servers leading the way. Together, the assembled sang hymns to the Virgin Mary, meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary and praying for the intentions of Pope Leo XVI and for world peace. The procession concluded near the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary at St. Bernadette's Church in Wombourne, where all in attendance paid beautiful homage to the Blessed Mother by offering flower petals and a flower crown.
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The Conclave of Cardinals has chosen Cardinal Robert Prevost as the new Pope who has taken the name as pope Leo XIV.

Cardinal Robert Prevost was born on September 14th, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in the nearby suburb of Dolton. He became a friar of the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977 and was ordained as a priest in 1982. His service includes extensive missionary work in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s, where he served as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher, and administrator. Elected prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013, he returned to Peru as Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and made him a cardinal the same year.

As a cardinal, he emphasized synodality, missionary dialogue, and engagement with social and technological challenges. He also engaged with issues such as climate change, global migration, church governance, and human rights, and expressed alignment with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
 
Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pope on May 8, 2025, the second day of the conclave, on the fourth ballot. White smoke appeared from the Sistine Chapel at 18:07 , signifying to the public that a pope had been chosen.

A citizen of the United States by birth, Leo XIV is the first pope to have been born in North America, the first to hold Peruvian citizenship (having been naturalized in 2015), the second pope from the Americas (after his predecessor Francis), and the first from the Order of Saint Augustine. His papal name was inspired by Pope Leo XIII, who developed modern Catholic social teaching amid the Second Industrial Revolution. Leo XIV believes the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, poses "new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice, and labour".