“I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15) is the theme chosen by Pope Leo XIV for the sixth World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, which this year will take place on Sunday, July 26.
According to a Feb. 10 statement from the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, the verse chosen by the Holy Father “is meant to emphasize how God’s love for every person never fails, not even in the frailty of old age.”
Taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah, the theme also aims to be “a message of comfort and hope for all grandparents and the elderly,” especially those who live alone or feel forgotten.
The Vatican dicastery emphasized that it is also an invitation to families and ecclesial communities not to forget the elderly and to recognize in them “a precious presence and a blessing.”
World Grandparents’ Day was instituted by Pope Francis in 2021 and is celebrated every fourth Sunday of July. It is an opportunity to show the elderly the closeness of the Church and to value their contribution to families and communities.
This year, the date coincides with the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the maternal grandparents of Jesus Christ, on Sunday, July 26, and the Holy Father invited everyone to celebrate the day with a Eucharistic liturgy in the cathedral church of their diocese.
The Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life also urged particular Churches and ecclesial communities throughout the world to find ways to celebrate the day in their own local contexts.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first World Day of Grandparents in July 2025, an occasion on which he encouraged the faithful to participate in the “revolution” of care for the elderly.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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