Pope affirms dignity of the elderly

Pope Francis has condemned the way the elderly are often abandoned – especially in richer societies – as a form of “hidden euthanasia”. Meeting with 100 elderly people and grandparents gathered for a special Mass in Rome on Sunday, he affirmed the huge import­ance of older people to society and warned of a “poisonous” culture that effectively abandons the elderly in institutions.

“How many times are old people just discarded, victims of an abandonment that is tantamount to hidden euthanasia? This is the result of a throwaway culture that is hurting our world so much,” he said. Homes for elderly people “should really be homes, not prisons”, he went on. “There must never be institutions where the elderly are forgotten, hidden or neglected.”

Francis told the group at St Peter’s that older people and children were particularly at risk because they were not economically productive. He recognised that residential homes for older people were necessary for those with no family to care for them. But he affirmed that old age is “a time of grace” and that grandparents have much wisdom to impart. “Blessed are those families who have grandparents nearby,” he said. “In a way, a grandfather is ‘twice a father’ and the grandmother ‘twice a mother’.” In the congregation were Mubarak and Aneesa Hano, elderly Christian refugees from Iraq, forced to flee their home by Islamic State terrorists.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI made a rare public appearance at the meeting although he left before the Mass. Francis embraced him twice, one long embrace at the beginning, and another when it was time for the Pope Emeritus to leave. Benedict removed his white zucchetto for the second embrace as a sign of his respect for his successor. Francis took the opportunity to express his esteem for his predecessor, saying that he was “very happy to have him living in the Vatican as it was like having a wise old granddad in the house”.
(See Joanna Moorhead, page 7.)