By Carol GlatzCatholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Many elderly people risk feeling an increasingly unbearable sense of loneliness, especially during…
World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly
The Gospel calls Christians to bring the elderly to the center of their lives and away from the margins of families, politics and financial markets that banish them as “unprofitable waste” in society, Pope Francis said. “Let it not happen that by pursuing the myths of efficiency and performance at full speed we become unable to slow down to accompany those who struggle to keep up,” he said in his homily at a Mass for World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly in St. Peter’s Basilica July 23.
This summer Catholics around the world are invited to participate in two exciting, inter-related events in the life of the church. The World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly will take place July 23, and World Youth Day is being celebrated in Lisbon, Portugal during the first week of August.
God wants young people to bring joy to the hearts of the elderly and to learn from their experiences, Pope Francis said.
Any Catholic who participates in the celebration July 24 of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly can receive a plenary indulgence, the Vatican announced.