“Let’s do it right here, Angelus,” Francis said spontaneously in front of his team and the reporters listening to him, who are flying with him to Canada this Sunday. He spoke about World Day of Grandparents and Elderly, which the church is celebrating on July 24:

“It’s Grandparents Day: Grandparents, Grandmothers Who Passed On History, Traditions, Habits, and Many More, Right? Today We Need to Go Back to Our Grandparents – I’ll Take It as a Leitmotif I say – in the sense that young people need to approach their grandparents, go back to them, go back to their roots. Not to be there, no, but like a tree that has fallen from its roots Takes strength and carries it to flowers and fruits.

Whatever makes the tree bloom…

At this point, Francis referred to an image that appears in a poem by the Argentine diplomat and author Francisco Luis Bernadez – the circle of life of a tree.

“Anything that makes a tree bloom comes from its burial, that is the grandparents. And as a religious I would also like to think of the grandparents of the old religious, pious life: please don’t hide them, they are the wisdom of a religious family; and new religious men and women, novices, contact with them: they give us all the experiences of life that will help us greatly to move forward … Therefore … the grandfather of each of us And there are grandmothers, some are dead, others are still alive, but let’s think about them in a special way today: We’ve got a lot of things from them, especially history. Thank you.”

annually on the fourth Sunday of July

Pope Francis himself declared the World Day of Grandparents and Older People in 2020. It takes place every year on the fourth Sunday of July around the commemoration of Saints Anne and Joachim, parents of Mary and thus great-grandparents of Jesus. The message for this year’s Motto Day can be found here.

(Vatican News – PR)