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First World Day for
Grandparents and the Elderly

 

Amid the global pandemic, on 31 January 2021, Pope Francis instituted the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, which will take place each year on the fourth Sunday in July, close to the feast of Sts Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ grandparents. In Canada and around the world, we are invited never to forget our grandparents and elderly persons, cherishing them as essential members of the Church and society.

On Sunday, 25 July 2021, this first World Day resonates well within Pope Francis’ broader initiative of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year (19 March 2021 – June 2022). Pastoral care of the elderly is an urgent responsibility of the Christian community, calling us to spend time with one another relating and sharing in intergenerational conversations. Young people are especially encouraged to enter into dialogue with older generations and find time to dream together about our hopes for a better world.

Resources from the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, Pastoral Kit:

Share your wish for grandparents and the elderly by using the official hashtag:  #IAMWITHYOUALWAYS


The first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly will be celebrated in circumstances in which it will still not be possible in many countries for the elderly to physically attend Mass.

  • In order for the message of closeness and consolation to reach everyone on this World Day − even those who are most isolated − we ask people to visit their grandparents and the elderly living alone in their community and to give them the Holy Father’s message.
  • A visit is a tangible sign of a Church of outreach. At a time of social distancing because of the pandemic, a visit shows that there is a way of being close to older people while still observing safety measures.
  • A visit is a personal choice to arise and go in haste to others (cf. Lk 1:39), just as Mary did when she visited her elderly cousin Elizabeth.
  • A visit is an opportunity for a grandchild to say to his or her grandparent and for a young person to say to an elderly person they are visiting, “I am with you always”.
  • A visit can be an opportunity to bring a gift, such as a flower, and to read the World Day prayer together.
  • A visit can also be an occasion to offer the elderly, especially those who have not left their homes for a long time, an opportunity to receive the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist.
  • A visit to an older person living alone is one of the ways of obtaining a Plenary Indulgence granted on the occasion of this World Day.
  • In places where health emergency measures still make it impossible to visit in person, love can use imagination to find ways of reaching lonely elderly people by phone or social media.
  • The World Day message can be shared by posting pictures of visits on social media with the hashtag #IamWithYouAlways.
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