World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly 2024

On Sunday, July 28, 2024, the Fourth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly will be celebrated throughout the universal Church. The theme chosen by the Holy Father for the occasion is "Do not cast me off in my old age" (Ps. 71:9)  and emphasises how grandparents and the elderly are a value and a gift both for society and for ecclesial communities.

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Pope Francis chose the theme which is “meant to call attention to the fact that, sadly, loneliness is the bitter lot in life of many elderly persons, so often the victims of the throwaway culture.”

 

Pope Francis celebrated the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly in 2021 and decreed that it be observed each year on the Sunday closest to the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ grandparents.