VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 045   
   DATE 04-03-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - General audience: awaken a collective sense of gratitude towards   
   grandparents and the elderly   
   - The Pope receives bishop friends of the Focolare Movement   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    General audience: awaken a collective sense of gratitude towards grandparents   
   and the elderly   
    Vatican City, 4 March 2015 (VIS) - Grandparents were the focus of this   
   Wednesday's general audience in St. Peter's Square. Continuing his catechesis   
   on the family, today the Pope considered the difficult current situation faced   
   by the elderly, commenting that next week he will present a more positive view   
   of the vocation that corresponds to this stage in life.   
    Thanks to advances in medical care, the Holy Father observed, life expectancy   
   has increased and there is a far greater number of elderly people, but   
   nevertheless society has not adapted to this change, and has not responded by   
   creating space for them, with the respect and consideration their fragility   
   and dignity demand. "When we are young, we are induced to ignore old age, as   
   if it were an illness to keep at bay; however, once we become old, especially   
   if we are poor, ill and alone, we experience the gaps in a society programmed   
   for efficiency, which as a consequence ignores the elderly".   
    He recalled the words of Benedict XVI during his visit to a residential home   
   for the elderly: "The quality of a society ... is also judged by how it treats   
   elderly people and by the place it gives them in community life", and   
   exclaimed, "A civilisation can sustain itself if it respects wisdom, the   
   wisdom of the elderly. On the contrary, a civilisation in which there is no   
   place for the elderly or in which they are discarded because they create   
   problems ... carries the virus of death".   
    He continued, "In the west, scholars present the current century as 'the   
   century of old age: there are fewer children and an increase in elderly   
   people. This imbalance is a great challenge to contemporary society. And yet,   
   a certain culture of profit insists on making the elderly appear to be a   
   burden, an extra weight. They are not only unproductive; they are an   
   encumbrance, and are to be discarded. And discarding them is sinful. We do not   
   dare to say this openly, but it happens. There is something cowardly in this   
   inurement to throwaway culture. We want to remove our growing fear of weakness   
   and vulnerability, but in this way we increase in the elderly the anguish of   
   being inadequately supported and abandoned".   
    Francis recalled that during his ministry in Buenos Aires he had first hand   
   experience of these problems. "The elderly are abandoned, and not only to   
   material precariousness. They are abandoned as a result of our selfish   
   inability to accept their limits, which reflect our own limits, in the many   
   difficulties that they must overcome nowadays to survive in a civilization   
   that does not allow them to participate, to have their say, or to be referents   
   according to a consumerist model in which 'only the young can be useful and   
   can enjoy themselves'. The elderly should instead be, for all of society, the   
   reserve of wisdom of our population. How easy it is for our conscience to   
   slumber when there is no love".   
    In the tradition of the Church, there is "a legacy of wisdom that has always   
   promoted a culture of closeness to the elderly, a willingness to provide   
   affectionate and supportive accompaniment in this final stage of life. This   
   tradition is rooted in the Sacred Scripture". Therefore, "the Church cannot   
   and does n wish to conform to a mentality of impatience, far less indifference   
   and disdain, with regard to old age. We must reawaken our collective sense of   
   gratitude, appreciation and hospitality that enable the elderly to feel like a   
   living part of the community. The elderly are men and women, mothers and   
   fathers who have walked the same road before us, in the same house, in our   
   everyday struggle for a dignified life. They are men and women from whom we   
   have received much. The elderly person is not an alien. We are the elderly:   
   sooner or later but in any case inevitably, even if we do not think about it".   
    "We are all a little fragile, the elderly", he continued. "Some, however, are   
   particularly weak, many are alone, and affected by illness. Some depend on the   
   indispensable care and attention of others. Will we take a step back for this?   
   Will we abandon them to their fate? A society without closeness, in which   
   gratuitousness and selfless affection - even among strangers - are   
   disappearing, is a perverse society. The Church, faithful to the Word of God,   
   cannot tolerate these degenerations. A Christian community in which closeness   
   and gratuitousness are no longer considered indispensable, would lose its soul   
   with this. Where there is no honour to the elderly, there is no future for the   
   young".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope receives bishop friends of the Focolare Movement   
    Vatican City, 4 March 2015 (VIS) - The Pope, before today's general audience,   
   received in the Paul VI Hall the seventy prelates from thirty-five countries   
   attending the 38th Congress of Bishop Friends of the Focolare Movement, which   
   began yesterday and will conclude on 6 March. The theme of the congress is   
   "Eucharist, mystery of communion". The president of the Movement, Maria Voce,   
   and the co-president Jesus Moran, were also present in the Paul VI Hall.   
   Following greetings from Cardinal Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij,   
   archbishop of Bangkok, Thailand, the Holy Father gave a brief address.   
    "You have united in Rome the friendship of this Movement and an interest in   
   the spirituality of communion", said the Holy Father. "Effectively, the   
   charism of unity, typical of the Work of Mary, is strongly anchored in the   
   Eucharist, which confers its Christian and ecclesial character. Without the   
   Eucharist, unity would be reduced to an emotion and a solely human,   
   psychological, sociological dynamic. Instead, the Eucharist guarantees that   
   Christ is at the centre, that it is His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that guides   
   our steps and our initiatives for encounter and communion".   
    "As bishops, we gather our communities around the Eucharist, the dual   
   nourishment of the Word and the Bread of Life. This is our service, and it is   
   fundamental. The bishop is the principle of unity in the Church, but this is   
   not possible without the Eucharist: the bishop does not gather the people   
   around his person or his ideas, but rather around Christ, present in His Word   
   and in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. And following Jesus, the good   
   pastor who made Himself lamb, sacrificed and resurrected, the bishop gathers   
   the flock entrusted to him by offering his life, assuming himself a form of   
   Eucharistic existence."   
    The Holy Father gave special thanks to the prelates from the "bloodsoaked   
   lands" of Syria, Iraq and Ukraine. "In the suffering you live with your   
   people, you experience the strength that comes from Jesus in the Eucharist,   
   the strength to go ahead united in faith and hope. In the daily celebration of   
   Mass we join with you, and we pray for you, offering Christ's Sacrifice; and   
   in this way the many initiatives of solidarity with your Churches take on   
   strength and meaning".   
    "Dear brothers", he concluded, "I encourage you to continue in your   
   commitment to promoting the ecumenical path and interreligious dialogue. And I   
   thank you for the contribution you give towards greater communion between the   
   various ecclesial movements".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 4 March 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has:   
    - appointed Bishop Joaquim Wladimir Lopes Dias as bishop of Colatina (area   
   13,086, population 568,000, Catholics 484,000, priests 59, permanent deacons   
   11, religious 86), Brazil. Bishop Lopes Dias is currently auxiliary of the   
   archdiocese of Vitoria, Brazil.   
    - appointed Rev. Jorge Cuapio Bautista as auxiliary of the archdiocese of   
   Tlalnepantla (area 682, population 2,300,239, Catholics 1,953,239, priests   
   312, permanent deacons 10, religious 347), Mexico. The bishop-elect was born   
   in Santa Ana Chiauhteman, Mexico in 1967 and was ordained a priest in 1992. He   
   belongs to the Community of the Missionaries of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.   
   He holds a licentiate in philosophy from the Universidad Popular Autonoma of   
   the state of Pueblo, and a licentiate in science of the family from the John   
   Paul II Institute in Rome. He has served in a number of pastoral roles in the   
   diocese of Texcoco, including parish vicar, professor in the seminary, parish   
   priest of the "San Salvador" and "San Bartolome Apostol" parishes, episcopal   
   vicar for pastoral ministry and member of the College of Consultors. He   
   currently assists in the parish of "Santa Isabel Ixtapan".   
    - accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the archdiocese of   
   Tlalnepantla, Mexico, presented by Bishop Francisco Ramirez Navarro upon   
   reaching the age limit.   
      
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