Tag: Grandparents

What the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly can teach every marriage about frailty.

As the church prepares to mark the Sixth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly on 26 July, the first with a theme chosen by Pope Leo XIV, one south-west Sydney parish shows what it looks like to take the Holy Father at his word: “I will never forget you.”

How a grandmother's quiet faith became Koe Evangelista's lighthouse and why he believes the most powerful thing the young can do for their elders is pray and keep “showing up”.

The church gives us a calendar full of saints, and this July it hands us three married pairs worth knowing. Each marriage speaks to something we're still learning ourselves. 

As we celebrate Grandparents Day on July 27, we’re reminded of the profound role we play in nurturing a culture of life within our families.

This is the text of Pope Leo XIV's homily for the Mass celebrated 1 June, 2025, in St Peter's Square that concluded the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly.

This World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, we are asked by the Holy Father to turn our attention especially to those among us who grow old alone. As Francine and Byron Pirola write, Christians have a special duty to accompany each other as we age.

Meeting with thousands of Italian grandparents and their children and grandchildren, Pope Francis insisted repeatedly, "Love makes us better."

Pope Francis has invited 6,000 grandparents and their grandchildren to a meeting titled "The caress and the smile" on 27 April to tackle throwaway culture.

I work in an aged care home and, while many of the people there have frequent visits from members of their family, many others see their children only rarely, even though they live in the same city. This disturbs me. How should we view this?

Dear Father, you wrote that we grandparents should not baptise our grandchildren when their parents have not had it done. But what can we do then? I really feel for these beautiful children growing up without any faith.

My married children do not practise their faith and, in spite of the encouragement of my wife and me, they have not had their...