{"id":4104,"date":"2021-02-23T07:27:22","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T07:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/?p=4104"},"modified":"2021-02-23T07:32:20","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T07:32:20","slug":"pope-establishes-world-day-for-grandparents-and-the-elderly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/?p=4104","title":{"rendered":"Pope establishes World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Source: Vatican News<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pope Francis has decided to institute a Church-wide\ncelebration of a World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. Starting this\nyear, it will be held on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the liturgical\nmemorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Vatican News staff\nreporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the Angelus on\nSunday, Pope Francis announced the institution of World Day for Grandparents\nand the Elderly, which will take place each year on the fourth Sunday in July,\nclose to the feast of Sts Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recalling the upcoming\nfeast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple \u2013 when the elderly Simeon and\nAnna encountered the child Jesus and recognized Him as the Messiah \u2013 Pope\nFrancis said, \u201cthe Holy Spirit even today stirs up thoughts and words of wisdom\nin the elderly.\u201d The voice of the elderly \u201cis precious,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause it\nsings the praises of God and preserves the roots of the peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elderly, he continued,\n\u201cremind us that old age is a gift and that grandparents are the link between\nthe different generation, to pass on to the young the experience of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elderly\nmust not be forgotten<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Holy Father said he\ninstituted the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly because \u201cgrandparents\nare often forgotten, and we forget this wealth of preserving roots and passing\non\u201d what the elderly have received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He emphasized the\nimportance of grandparents and grandchildren getting to know one another,\nbecause \u201cas the prophet Joel says, grandparents seeing their grandchildren\ndream,\u201d while \u201cyoung people, drawing strength from their grandparents, will go\nforward and prophesy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First fruits\nof the Amoris Laetitia Family Year<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a press release\nfollowing the announcement, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery\nfor Laity, Family and Life, the establishment of the Day of Grandparents and\nthe Elderly \u201cis the first fruits of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year, a gift to\nthe whole Church that is destined to continue into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added, \u201cThe pastoral\ncare of the elderly is a priority that can no longer be postponed by any\nChristian community. In the encyclical Fratelli tutti<\/a><\/em>, the Holy Father reminds us\nthat no one is saved alone. With this in mind, we must treasure the spiritual\nand human wealth that has been handed down from generation to generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement from the\nDicastery notes that Pope Francis is expected to celebrate the first World Day\nby presiding at Mass on the evening of Sunday, 25 July, in St Peter\u2019s, subject\nto health measures in place at the time. Closer to the Day, the Dicastery \u201cwill\nannounce further initiatives that will mark the event.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Priorities\nfor Pope Francis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, Vittorio Scelzo is involved with the pastoral care of the elderly. He notes that the celebration of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly is connected to the Days established by Pope Francis for the Word of God and for the Poor. In an interview with Vatican News, Scelzo emphasized that \u201cthe poor, the Bible and the elderly\u201d are \u201cthree priorities\u201d of Pope Francis\u2019 pontificate, priorities that are destined \u201cto mark the future of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

03\/07\/2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pope: \u2018care for the elderly, don\u2019t leave them alone\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is necessary to bridge\nthe gap between the elderly and younger generations, Scelzo said, adding, \u201cThe\nelderly are not saved by themselves. Unfortunately, we have seen during the\npandemic how many elderly were not saved.\u201d Pope Francis wants to remind us that\nsimilarly, \u201cyoung people, adults and our society cannot save themselves without\nthe elderly,\u201d said Scelzo. He noted that intergenerational dialogue is\nessential: \u201cIn order to come out of the crisis better and not worse, every\nsociety needs to come to terms with its roots and develop a new synthesis of\nits values, starting also from dialogue with the elderly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dreams of\nthe elderly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scelzo continued, \u201cThe\nopposite of the culture of discarding is precisely pastoral care for the\nelderly: putting the elderly at the centre of the life of our communities every\nday. Not only in emergencies, not only when it is too late to realise this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elderly \u201care trees that\nalways bear fruit and people who continue to dream.\u201d So young people must be\n\u201cbrought into dialogue with the dreams of the elderly.\u201d Scelzo recalls that\nthis is a message often repeated by Pope Francis. \u201cThe dreams of the elderly have\nbuilt our society; for example, I am thinking of Europe, of a world without war\nanymore.\u201d The encyclical Tutti fratelli<\/em> is full of \u201cthis dream\nof a world without war.\u201d It is the dream that \u201cour elders, our grandparents had\nafter the Second World War.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps,\u201d Vittorio Scelzo concludes, \u201cwe need to enter into dialogue with these dreams\u201d in order \u201cto understand what the dreams for the future of our society should be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As published by the Vatican News. Find original article here: https:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/en\/pope\/news\/2021-01\/pope-establishes-world-day-for-grandparents-and-the-elderly.html<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis has decided to institute a Church-wide celebration of a World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. Starting this year, it will be held on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the liturgical memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus. By Vatican News staff reporter Following the Angelus on Sunday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}