In a Paul VI Hall filled with thousands of grandparents, elderly people and grandchildren, on the day on which the Church celebrates the tenth anniversary of the canonization of Popes St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II, the Holy Father said that "love makes us better. This is also demonstrated by you, who make each other better by loving one another".

"And I say this to you as a "grandfather", with the desire to share the ever-youthful faith that unites all generations. I too received it from my grandmother, from whom I first came to know Jesus, who loves us, who never leaves us alone, and who encourages us to be close to one another and never to exclude anyone."

The Pontiff then told a family story about his grandmother. "From her I heard the story of that family in which there was the grandfather who, because he no longer ate well at the table and got dirty, they threw him out, they put him to eat alone. It was not a nice thing to do, in fact it was very bad! So the grandson put in a few days with the hammer and nails, and when dad asked him what he was doing, he replied, 'I'm building a table for you to eat by yourself when you're old!' This my grandmother taught me, and I've never forgotten it since." 

The poverty of fragmentation and selfishness

"Don't forget it yourselves either, because only by being together with love, without excluding anyone, one becomes better, more human!" he continued. "And not only that, but you also become richer. Our society is full of people specialized in many things, rich in knowledge and useful means for everyone. However, if it is not shared and everyone thinks only for himself, all the wealth is lost, indeed, it becomes an impoverishment of humanity."

"And this is a great risk for our time: the poverty of fragmentation and selfishness. Let us think, for example, of some of the expressions we use: when we speak of the "world of the young", of the "world of the old", of the "world of this old man"... But the world is only one! And it is composed of many realities that are different precisely so that they can help and complement each other: the generations, the peoples. All the differences, if harmonized, can reveal, like the faces of a great diamond, the marvelous splendor of man and of creation".

Alert to attitudes that create loneliness

In an atmosphere of affection and especially moving for the Pope, Francis recalled that "sometimes we hear phrases such as 'think of yourself, you don't need anyone! These are false phrases, which deceive people into believing that it is good not to depend on others, to do for oneself to live as islands, while these are attitudes that only create a lot of loneliness. As for example when, due to the throwaway culture, the elderly are left alone and have to spend the last years of their lives far from home and their loved ones". 

Let's think for a moment, he encouraged: "Do we like this? Isn't a world in which no one has to fear ending their days alone much better? Clearly it is. So let's build this world, together, not only by devising care programs, but by cultivating different projects of existence, in which the passing of the years is not considered a loss that belittles someone, but a good that grows and enriches everyone."

To the grandchildren: grandparents, the memory of the world

"Dear grandchildren, your grandparents are the memory of a world without memory, and "when a society loses its memory, it is finished. Listen to them, especially when they teach you with their love and their testimony to cultivate the most important affections, which are not obtained by force, do not appear with success, but fill life".

The Pope concluded. "It is not by chance that it was two elderly people, I like to think two grandparents, Simeon and Anna, who recognized Jesus when he was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem by Mary and Joseph (cf. Lk 2:22-38). They welcomed him, took him in their arms and understood - they alone understood - what was happening: that God was there, present, and was looking at them with the eyes of a child. They alone understood, when they saw the little Jesus, that the Messiah had arrived, the Savior they were all waiting for".

"Old people see far, because they have lived so many years," he finished, "and they have so much to teach: for example, how bad war is. I, a long time ago, learned this from my grandfather, who had lived through the First World War and who, through his stories, made me understand that war is a horrible thing. Seek out your grandparents and do not marginalize them, for your own sake: 'The marginalization of the elderly [...] corrupts all the seasons of life, not only old age' (Catechesis, June 1, 2022)".

The Pope, "grandfather" of the world

The event began an hour and a half before the Pope's arrival, with the testimony of the so-called "grandfather of Italy", the actor Lino Banfi, and the singer Al Bano, together with Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who chaired the Italian Commission for the Reform of Health and Social Care for the Elderly (or Third Age), created in 2021 by the Italian government's Ministry of Health. 

This commission launched a Letter of the Rights of the Elderly and the Duties of the Community, on which he reported Omnes. Monsignor Paglia today called Lino Banfi the grandfather of Europe, who in turn called Pope Francis "grandfather of the world".

Humanizing the world

"We want to try to humanize the world with affectivity, to cure us of isolation and loneliness," he said this week, in the presentation Mario Marazziti, president of the Italian Età Grande Foundation which, inspired by Christian and evangelical values, aims to promote and guarantee the rights of the elderly and the correlative duties of the community.  

"With the initiative we want to give a new vision of old age," said Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life." Old age "is not a waste, a burden, but a resource and is not unrelated to all the other ages of life. We want to start from here to rediscover the heritage of the third age, giving the floor to grandparents and grandchildren, among whom there is a special harmony, complicity and affective dimension that does not exist among the other generations". 

Increased attention to the elderly

"The elderly must understand that they can still give a lot," he added, explaining that "in Italy, for example, there are 14 million of them, but for them there is no work of political, economic, religious or cultural reflection. And if the Pope, with a cycle of nineteen catecheses, has indicated how to live the third age and has created the World Day of Grandparents, while the Italian State, with the law 33 of 2023 on the reform of non-self-sufficiency, has committed itself to reorganize the assistance to the elderly, the hope is that also in other nations the attention towards the older generations will grow. 

Grandparents and grandchildren, the warmth between generations

"The dimension of old age," in his opinion, "becomes decisive to resume, through the bond with the grandchildren, the warmth with the other generations," Monsignor Paglia assured. "Grandparents and grandchildren are the two extreme generations that cannot live without the intermediate ones. This is a magisterium that adults and young people must listen to."