The IV World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly was celebrated on Sunday, 28 July 2024. The theme chosen by the Holy Father – “Do not cast me off in my old age” (cf. Psalm 71:9) – is meant to call attention to the fact that, sadly, loneliness is the bitter lot in life of many elderly persons, so often the victims of the throw-away culture.
Psalm 71 the Pope states, “speaks to a conspiracy surrounding the life of the elderly.” And he explains, that the “abandonment of the elderly is not by chance or inevitable, but the fruit of decisions – political, economic, social and personal decisions – that fail to acknowledge the infinite dignity of each person, ‘beyond every circumstance, state or situation the person may ever encounter’.”
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