Pope Francis has sent birthday greetings to Queen Elizabeth II, aged 96, as her Platinum Jubilee celebrations get underway.
“On the joyful occasion of Your Majesty’s birthday, and as you celebrate this Platinum Jubilee year, I send cordial greetings and good wishes, together with the renewed assurance of my prayers that almighty God will bestow upon you, the members of the Royal Family and all the people of the nation, blessings of unity, prosperity and peace.”
Earlier, he condemned society’s “throwaway culture” in which people cheat and intimidate the elderly.
In his general audience yesterday, Pope Francis, 85, referred to “the strong tension that dwells in the condition of old age, when the memory of labours overcome and blessings received is put to the test of faith and hope”.
Pope Francis at his general audience yesterday. Pic: Paul Haring/CNS
He said the condition can become an opportunity for abandonment, deception, prevarication and arrogance, which people deployed to prey upon the elderly.
“In this throwaway society, this throwaway culture, elderly people are cast aside and suffer these things. A form of cowardice in which we specialise in this society of ours. Indeed, there is no lack of those who take advantage of the elderly, to cheat them and to intimidate them in myriad ways.
“Often, we read in the newspapers or hear news of elderly people who are unscrupulously tricked out of their savings, or are left without protection or abandoned without care; or offended by forms of contempt and intimidated into renouncing their rights. Such cruelty also occurs within families – and this is serious, but it happens in families too. The elderly who are rejected, abandoned in rest homes, without their children coming to visit them, or they go a few times a year. The elderly person is placed in the corner of existence. And this happens: it happens today, it happens in families, it happens all the time. We must reflect on this.”
Shame should fall on those who take advantage of the weakness of illness and old age.
The whole of society must hasten to take care of its elderly, he added.
They are increasingly numerous and often also the most abandoned.
“When we hear of elderly people who are dispossessed of their autonomy, of their security, even their home, we understand that the ambivalence of today’s society with regard to old age is not a problem of occasional emergencies, but a feature of that throwaway culture that poisons the world we live in”
The consequences can be fatal, where old age not only loses its dignity, but it even doubts that it deserves to continue.
“In this way, we are all tempted to hide our vulnerability, to hide our illness, our age and our seniority, because we fear that they are the precursor to our loss of dignity.”