The pontiff, who is traveling in Spain, sent a letter to be read at a Vatican symposium on the elderly.
Pope Leo XIV has called for greater respect for the elderly, affirming that their fragility still has much to teach humanity today.
In a letter sent via the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to the participants of the June 10 symposium in Rome titled “A Bridge Toward Heaven,” the pontiff expressed his hope that their efforts would encourage “renewed attitudes of respect, gratitude, and esteem toward the elderly.”
Leo also criticized the modern tendency to equate strength with mere displays of power. “The society we live in is dominated by the logic of performance and competition, whereby strength is conceived as a display of power and tends to degenerate into abuse,” the message said.
The pope also praised the witness of the elderly in their physical weakness with age and described them as offering profound lessons for the younger generation, who might not yet recognize their value.
“The elderly, in the serene acceptance of the limitations linked to the passing of the years, without hiding them or being ashamed of them, can be teachers of life, capable of showing everyone — and especially young people — that the value of an existence is not measured by the yardstick of efficiency or self-sufficiency but by the capacity to love and to let oneself be loved, to give and to receive,” the message said.
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