• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Pope Francis greets Italian grandparents with their children and grandchildren April 27, 2024, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Love makes individuals and the world better, pope says

April 29, 2024
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: News, Seniors, Vatican, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Meeting with thousands of Italian grandparents and their children and grandchildren, Pope Francis insisted repeatedly, “Love makes us better.”

“Love makes us better; it makes us richer, and it makes us wiser, at any age,” he said April 27 to the young and old who filled the Vatican audience hall. “Love makes us better.”

Joining people associated with the Età Grande Foundation, which lobbies for the rights of the elderly to stay in their homes with family, community and government support, Pope Francis spoke about his grandmother Rosa, who first taught him to pray, and he mimicked grandparents everywhere by handing out chocolates to the children.

The pope told the families, “You make each other better by loving each other. And I say this to you as a ‘grandfather’ with the desire to share the ever-youthful faith that unites all generations” and which “I received from my grandmother, from whom I first learned about Jesus who loves us, who never leaves us alone, and who urges us too to be close to each other and never to exclude anyone.”

And in a world that so often focuses on the individual and his or her accomplishments and possessions, love actually is what makes people richer, he said.

Sometimes, he said, people speak of the “world of youth” or the “world of the elderly,” but “there is just one world! And it is made up of many realities that are different precisely to help and complement each other.”

People of different generations, different nationalities and different talents “if harmonized, can reveal, like the faces of a big diamond, the wondrous splendor of humanity and creation,” the pope said. “This, too, is what your being together teaches us: not to let diversity create rifts between us! No, let there not be rifts — don’t pulverize the diamond of love, the most beautiful treasure God has given us: love.”

Too often, the pope said, people are told to be self-reliant and that the strong do not need anyone.

But that is a sad way to live, he said, especially as one gets older.

“The elderly must not be left alone, they must live within the family, in the community, with the affection of everyone,” he said. “And if they cannot live with their families, we must go to visit them and stay close to them.”

“Isn’t a world in which no one has to be afraid to end their days alone much better?” he asked.

Pope Francis told the grandchildren that their elders are not the only ones who benefit from frequent visits because from them they can learn “the wisdom of their strong love, and also of their frailty, which is a ‘magisterium’ capable of teaching without the need for words, a true antidote to the hardening of the heart: it will help you not to remain stuck in the present, and to savor life as a relationship.”

“But not only that,” he said. “When you, grandparents and grandchildren, old and young, are together, when you see and hear each other often, when you care for each other, your love is a breath of clean air that refreshes the world and society and makes us all stronger, beyond the bonds of kinship.”

Read More Vatican News

Vatican official warns of AI’s hidden costs to environment, work and society

Pope Leo joins U.S. bishops in mourning victims of Catholic school shooting

Live, act on faith; avoid ‘split’ personality, pope tells politicians

10 times Pope Leo has included a St. Augustine quote in his public addresses

Pope sends his condolences after ‘terrible tragedy’ of school shooting

Pope pleads with Israel, Hamas to end violence

Copyright © 2024 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Cindy Wooden

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • St John the Evangelist in Severna Park celebrates its newly renovated church

  • Three philanthropists remembered for support of Archdiocese of Baltimore causes

  • Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Catholic schools convocation celebrates teachers

  • Sister Kathleen Shannon, Baltimore native and math teacher, dies at 70

  • Jesuit Father James Salmon, noted Loyola professor, dies at 100

| Latest Local News |

Football coaches eager to make a difference in new roles at Baltimore-area Catholic schools 

Brother Michael Madden, O.F.M., Baltimore native and artisan, dies in Florida

Archdiocese of Baltimore schools celebrate first day of school

Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Catholic schools convocation celebrates teachers

Three philanthropists remembered for support of Archdiocese of Baltimore causes

| Latest World News |

Vatican official warns of AI’s hidden costs to environment, work and society

Experts share 6 ways to help prevent suicide ahead of Suicide Prevention Month

California bishops, marriage ministry partner to strengthen family life

Amid Russian attacks, Ukraine’s religious leaders plead for Pope Leo’s help in returning abducted children

Archbishop Hebda prays for community’s peace, fortitude, consolation after school shooting

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Vatican official warns of AI’s hidden costs to environment, work and society
  • Movie Review: ‘Caught Stealing’
  • California bishops, marriage ministry partner to strengthen family life
  • Experts share 6 ways to help prevent suicide ahead of Suicide Prevention Month
  • Amid Russian attacks, Ukraine’s religious leaders plead for Pope Leo’s help in returning abducted children
  • Archbishop Hebda prays for community’s peace, fortitude, consolation after school shooting
  • Experts: Churches, schools must act on ‘unique vulnerability’ in their security
  • Pope Leo joins U.S. bishops in mourning victims of Catholic school shooting
  • Archbishop Hebda after Catholic school shooting: We ask for your prayers and action, rooted in hope

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en