Pope Francis said this Wednesday, during the general audience, that the elderly “are not discarded material”, but “a gift for society” and recalled that they were the ones who paid the highest price during the pandemic, because “already they were the weakest and most neglected part.”
“We did not look at them too much in life and we did not even see them die,” said the pontiff, who today began a series of catechesis dedicated to the elderly during the general audience held in the Paul VI hall.
The pope lamented that it is increasingly common to consider the elderly as “a burden” and added that “along with migration, old age is one of the most urgent issues that the human family is called to face at this time.”
He asserted that “the exaltation of youth as the only age worthy of embodying the human ideal, together with contempt for old age seen as fragility, degradation, disability, has been the dominant icon of 20th century totalitarianism.”
“Youth is beautiful, but eternal youth is a very dangerous hallucination. Being old is just as important, and beautiful, as being young”, reflected the pope, who stressed that “the alliance between generations, which gives back to the human being all the ages of life, is our lost gift” and “has to be found”.
And in this regard, he stated that “if grandparents withdraw into their melancholy, young people will stoop even more over their smartphones.”
The objective of these catecheses, added the Argentine pontiff, “is to encourage everyone to invest thoughts and affections in the gifts that this one brings with it and to other ages” and “discern the meaning and value of old age”. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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