Vatican offers indulgence for World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly May 31, 2022By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Seniors, Vatican, World News VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Any Catholic who participates in the celebration July 24 of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly can receive a plenary indulgence, the Vatican announced. “Grandparents, the elderly and all the faithful who, motivated by a true spirit of penance and charity,” attend Mass or other prayer services for the occasion can receive the indulgence, which “can also be applied as a suffrage for the souls in purgatory,” said the announcement published May 30. Pope Francis celebrated the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly in 2021 and decreed that it be observed each year on the Sunday closest to the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ grandparents. This is the logo for the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, which will be celebrated July 24, 2022. The faithful can obtain a plenary indulgence by participating in events on that day. (CNS photo/courtesy Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life) In his message for this year’s celebration, Pope Francis asked older people like himself to be “artisans of the revolution of tenderness.” “We grandparents and elderly people have a great responsibility: to teach the women and men of our time to regard others with the same understanding and loving gaze with which we regard our own grandchildren,” he had written. Addressing younger people as well, the 85-year-old pope encouraged them to seek out and visit those who feel most alone. “Expecting a visit can transform those days when we think we have nothing to look forward to; from an initial encounter, a new friendship can emerge,” he said. “Visiting the elderly who live alone is a work of mercy in our time!” Announcing the indulgence May 30, the Vatican said it also can apply to those who “devote adequate time to actually or virtually visiting their elderly brothers and sisters in need or in difficulty.” To receive a plenary indulgence, which is a remission of the temporal punishment due for one’s sins, a person must show detachment from sin, go to confession, receive the Eucharist and pray for the intentions of the pope. The indulgence also is available to “the elderly sick and all those who, unable to leave their homes for a serious reason, spiritually join” the celebrations, particularly by watching on television or the internet or listening on the radio, and “offer to the merciful God their prayers, sorrows and sufferings,” the Vatican said. Read More Vatican News Pope Leo XIV to undergo surgery to remove lung nodule Bishops discuss cohabitation of young couples at Vatican meeting on marriage and family Irish sister brings front-line missionary perspective to Vatican curial role Fostering critical thinking at Catholic universities can counter ‘false teachers,’ pope says Pope Leo to deliver peace message in Assisi 40 years after St. John Paul II’s landmark gathering Pope Leo opens Vatican bishops’ meeting calling attention to the ‘fragility of families’ Copyright © 2022 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Print
