“A long life — so the Bible teaches — is a blessing, and the elderly are not outcasts to be shunned but living signs of the goodness of God who bestows life in abundance. Blessed is the house where an older person lives! Blessed is the family that honors the elderly!” (July 24, 2022)

In 2021, Pope Francis established the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.  It would be celebrated annually on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the memorial of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.

For Pope Francis, a devotion to grandparents is personal. He has frequently spoken of his own grandmother, Rosa, a woman of faith who came from a peasant family in Piedmont, Italy, and emigrated to Argentina to escape poverty. During the Pentecost Vigil of 2013, he said it was his grandmother who first transmitted the Christian faith to him.

“I had the grace to grow up in a family where faith was lived in a simple and concrete way; but it was above all my grandmother, my father's mother, who marked my path of faith. She was a woman who explained to us, who spoke to us about Jesus, who taught us the Catechism.” 

When Pope Francis was asked what should be the vocation of the elderly, he said: “To preserve our roots, to pass on the faith to the young and to care for the little ones. Never forget this.”

He went on to say: “It makes no difference how old you are, whether you still work or not, whether you are alone or have a family, whether you became a grandmother or grandfather at a young age or later, whether you are still independent or need assistance. Because there is no retirement age from the work of proclaiming the Gospel and handing down traditions to your grandchildren. You just need to set out and undertake something new.”