Reflecting on the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, a Vatican official called on the faithful to “take responsibility for addressing loneliness, the real poverty of old age.”
“The certainty of not being forgotten by God must become the daily experience of not being forgotten by one’s parish and one’s family,” said Vittorio Scelzo, head of the pastoral care of the elderly at the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.
The elderly should not be seen merely as “recipients of charitable services, but as active subjects of pastoral life,” Scelzo added. “They make up a significant portion of the People of God, and it is essential that they receive the pastoral attention they deserve.”