For the 2nd World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, which will be held on July 24, 2022, Pope Francis chose the theme “In Old Age, They Will Continue To Bear Fruit,” informed a note published by the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life.
The note points out that the theme “intends to stress that grandparents and the elderly are a value and a gift, both to society as well as to ecclesial communities.”
The Day is “an invitation to reconsider and appreciate grandparents and the elderly, who too often are kept on the margin of families and of civil and ecclesial communities. Their experiences of life and faith can help to build societies that are conscious of their roots and able to dream of a more solidary future.”
Moreover, “the invitation to listen to the wisdom of the years is particularly significant in the context of the synodal journey the Church has undertaken.”
Finally, the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life “invites parishes, diocese, Associations, and Ecclesial Communities worldwide to find a way to celebrate the Day in their own pastoral context and, to do so, it will make available the appropriate pastoral instruments.”
Pope Francis’ Institution of the Day
“Grandparents are often forgotten and we forget this richness to preserve the roots and to transmit them. Hence, I have decided to institute the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, which will be held every year in the whole Church on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the feast of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, Jesus’ ‘grandparents,’ said Pope Francis on January 31, 2021, after praying the Angelus.
“It’s important that grandparents meet with their grandchildren, and that grandchildren meet with their grandparents, because — as the prophet Joel says — grandparents will dream in front of their grandchildren, will have hopes [great desires], and, drawing strength from their grandparents, young people will go forward; they will prophesy.”
The 1st World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly was held on July 25, 2021, with the theme: “I Am with You Always” (cf. Matthew 28:20).
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
