Celebrating World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly
Pope Francis will be presiding over a special Mass in St Peter’s Basilica dedicated to grandparents and the elderly. Around 6,000 people: “grandparents accompanied by their grandchildren and families, elderly residents living in retirement and residential nursing homes, as well as many elderly people who are active in parish, diocesan and associational life,” are expected to attend.
At the end of the celebration, five older people – one representative from each continent will symbolically hand over the World Youth Day Pilgrim’s Cross to five young people leaving for Lisbon.
The gesture symbolizes the “transmission of faith from age to age” but also “the commitment that the elderly and grandparents have accepted, at the invitation of the Holy Father, to pray for the departing youth and accompany them with their blessing.”
Source: ICN
