On July 23, Pope Francis celebrated the third World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly in Rome. During Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis stressed that young and elderly should look out for, and support, each other. The centrality of this idea was reflected in the motto of the celebration: “His mercy is from age to age“ (Lk 1:50).  

The Holy Father highlighted some of the many challenges facing the elderly today, telling us: “let us be careful, so that our crowded cities do not become ‘centers of loneliness’; that politics, called to provide for the needs of the most fragile, never forgets the elderly nor allows the market to banish them as ‘unprofitable waste’. May we not chase after the utopias of efficiency and performance at full-speed, lest we become incapable of slowing down to accompany those who struggle to keep up. Please, let us mingle and grow together.”   

Pope Francis repeatedly reminded the faithful that the elderly are not only people whom the Church is called to safeguard but are also protagonists of a pastoral evangelizing ministry – they are privileged witnesses of God’s faithful love, a love that is passed down from generation to generation.  

Speaking on the importance of this event as well as the motivations for its creation, the Pope said: “Grandparents are often forgotten and we forget this wealth of preserving roots and passing on. This is why, I have decided to establish World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, which will be held throughout the Church every year on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, Jesus’s “grandparents”.  

In his message for World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly 2023, Pope Francis called on young people to visit their grandparents, or an elderly person, as part of their preparation for World Youth Day, which will be held in Lisbon, Portugal from August 1-6.