Continuing his catechesis on the family, Pope Francis has reflected on elderly people and on the vocation that corresponds to this stage in life.
On March 4, 2015 at the Wednesday Audience, he started by saying: “Elderly are a wealth not to be ignored” denouncing once again that throw-away culture present in our society that involves the elderly, who are considered a burden, “dead wood”. Then, he remembered some of the visits, when he was archbishop in Buenos Aires, done to old people’s homes there: “I spoke with each person and I frequently heard this: “How are you? And your children? Well, well. How many do you have? Many. And do they come to visit you?. Oh sure, yes, always, yes, they come. When was the last time they came?” I remember an elderly woman who said to me: “Mmm, for Christmas”. It was August! Eight months without being visited by her children, abandoned for eight months!”. “Our elders – explained the Argentinian pope – are men and women, fathers and mothers, who came before us on our own road, in our own house, in our daily battle for a worthy life. They are men and women from whom we have received so much. The elder is not an alien. We are that elder: in the near or far future, but inevitably, even if we don’t think it. And if we don’t learn how to treat the elder better, that is how we will be treated”.
The pope concluded by saying efficaciously, launching an appeal on our own conscience, to renew the choice of proximity and selflessness toward elderly people: “We old people are all a little fragile”, he continued “some, however, are particularly weak, many are alone, and stricken by illness. Some depend on the indispensable care and attention of others. Are we going to take a step back? Abandon them to their fate? A society without proximity, where gratuity and affection without compensation— between strangers as well — is disappearing, is a perverse society. The Church, faithful to the Word of God, cannot tolerate such degeneration. A Christian community in which proximity and gratuity are no longer considered indispensable is a society which would lose her soul. Where there is no honour for elders, there is no future for the young”.
On occasion of these catechesis of the Holy Father, we wish to re-propose a document dedicated to the Elderly written by the Pontifical Council for the Laity, the title is “The Dignity of Older People and their Mission in the Church and in the World”
