Grandparents and the Elderly 2021
A Message from the CCCB Standing Committee for Family and Life
First World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly
Sunday, 25 July 2021
“I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20)
Text presentation of the Message (PDF)
Share your wish for grandparents and the elderly by using the official hashtag:
#IAMWITHYOUALWAYS
More about this special day
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, on 31 January 2021, Pope Francis instituted the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, which will take place each year on the fourth Sunday in July, close to the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ grandparents. In Canada and around the world, the Holy Father invites us never to forget our grandparents and elderly persons, that we may always cherish them as essential members of the Church and society.
This First World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, on Sunday, 25 July 2021, resonates well within Pope Francis’s broader initiative of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year (19 March 2021 – 26 June 2022). Pastoral care of the elderly is an urgent responsibility of the Christian community, calling each of us individually to care for and spend time with the elderly, relating, sharing, and learning from them within intergenerational relationships. Young people are especially encouraged to enter into dialogue with older generations and find time to dream together about our hopes for a better world.
Resources from the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life
The official prayer recited by Pope Francis with voices from all over the world, including two Canadians!
- Most Rev. Laurent Noël, Bishop Emeritus of Trois-Rivières, who recently turned 101 years old and Mrs. Rita Strauss, a grandmother from the Archdiocese of Edmonton
Click here to visit the official release from the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life
Pastoral Kit