Dear brothers and sisters,
The Jubilee we are now celebrating helps
us to realize that hope is a constant source of
joy, whatever our age. When that hope has also
been tempered by fire over the course of a long
life, it proves a source of deep happiness.
Sacred Scripture offers us many examples
of men and women whom the Lord called late in
life to play a part in his saving plan. We can think
of Abraham and Sarah, who, advanced in years,
found it hard to believe when God promised
them a child. Their childlessness seemed to
prevent them from any hope for the future.
Zechariah’s reaction to the news of John
the Baptist’s birth was no different: “How can this
be? I am an old man and my wife is advanced in
years” (Lk 1:18). Old age, barrenness and physical
decline apparently blocked any hope for life and
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
WORLD DAY FOR GRANDPARENTS AND THE ELDERLY
27 July 2025
Blessed are those who have not lost hope
(cf. Sir 14:2)
2
fertility in these men and women. The question
that Nicodemus asked Jesus when the Master
spoke to him of being “born again” also seems
purely rhetorical: “How can a man be born
when he is old? Can he enter a second time into
his mother’s womb and be born?” (Jn 3 :4). Y et
whenever we think that things cannot change,
the Lord surprises us with an act of saving power.
The elderly as signs of hope
In the Bible, God repeatedly demonstrates
his providential care by turning to people in
their later years. This was the case not only
with Abraham, Sarah, Zechariah and Elizabeth,
but also with Moses, who was called to set his
people free when he was already eighty years
old (cf. Ex 7:7). God thus teaches us that, in his
eyes, old age is a time of blessing and grace, and
that the elderly are, for him, the first witnesses
of hope. Augustine asks, “What do we mean by
old age?” He tells us that God himself answers
the question: “Let your strength fail, so that my
strength may abide within you, and you can say
with the Apostle, ‘When I am weak, then I am
strong’” (Super Ps. 70,11). The increasing number
of elderly people is a sign of the times that we are
called to discern, in order to interpret properly
this moment of history.
The life of the Church and the world can
only be understood in light of the passage of
generations. Embracing the elderly helps us to
3
understand that life is more than just the present
moment, and should not be wasted in superficial
encounters and fleeting relationships. Instead,
life is constantly pointing us toward the future.
In the book of Genesis, we find the moving
episode of the blessing given by the aged Jacob to
his grandchildren, the sons of Joseph; his words
are an appeal to look to the future with hope, as
the time when God’s promises will be fulfilled
(cf. Gen 48:8-20). If it is true that the weakness
of the elderly needs the strength of the young,
it is equally true that the inexperience of the
young needs the witness of the elderly in order
to build the future with wisdom. How often our
grandparents have been for us examples of faith
and devotion, civic virtue and social commitment,
memory and perseverance amid trials! The
precious legacy that they have handed down to
us with hope and love will always be a source of
gratitude and a summons to perseverance.
Signs of hope for the elderly
From biblical times, the Jubilee has been
understood as a time of liberation. Slaves were
freed, debts were forgiven and land was returned
to its original owners. The Jubilee was a time
when the social order willed by God was restored,
and inequalities and injustices accumulated over
the years were remedied. Jesus evoked those
moments of liberation when, in the synagogue of
Nazareth, he proclaimed good news to the poor,
sight to the blind and freedom for prisoners and
the oppressed (cf. Lk 4:16-21).
4
Looking at the elderly in the spirit of this
Jubilee, we are called to help them experience
liberation, especially from loneliness and
abandonment. This year is a fitting time to
do so. God’s fidelity to his promises teaches
us that there is a blessedness in old age, an
authentic evangelical joy inspiring us to break
through the barriers of indifference in which
the elderly often find themselves enclosed. Our
societies, everywhere in the world, are growing
all too accustomed to letting this significant and
enriching part of their life be marginalized and
forgotten.
Given this situation, a change of pace
is needed that would be readily seen in an
assumption of responsibility on the part of the
whole Church. Every parish, association and
ecclesial group is called to become a protagonist
in a “revolution” of gratitude and care, to be
brought about by regular visits to the elderly,
the creation of networks of support and prayer
for them and with them, and the forging of
relationships that can restore hope and dignity
to those who feel forgotten. Christian hope
always urges us to be more daring, to think big,
to be dissatisfied with things the way they are.
In this case, it urges us to work for a change that
can restore the esteem and affection to which
the elderly are entitled.
That is why Pope Francis wanted the
World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly to be
5
celebrated primarily through an effort to seek
out elderly persons who are living alone. For
this reason, those who are unable to come to
Rome on pilgrimage during this Holy Year may
“obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if they visit, for an
appropriate amount of time, the elderly who are
alone… making, in a sense, a pilgrimage to Christ
present in them (cf. Mt 25:34-36)” (APOSTOLIC
PENITENTIARY, Norms for the Granting of the
Jubilee Indulgence, III). Visiting an elderly person
is a way of encountering Jesus, who frees us from
indifference and loneliness.
As elderly persons, we can hope
The Book of Sirach calls blessed those who
have not lost hope (cf. 14:2). Perhaps, especially if
our lives are long, we may be tempted to look not
to the future but to the past. Yet, as Pope Francis
wrote during his last hospitalization, “our bodies
are weak, but even so, nothing can prevent us
from loving, praying, giving ourselves, being
there for one another, in faith, as shining signs
of hope” (Angelus, 16 March 2025). We possess a
freedom that no difficulty can rob us of: it is the
freedom to love and to pray. Everyone, always,
can love and pray.
Our affection for our loved ones – for
the wife or husband with whom we have spent
so much of our lives, for our children, for our
grandchildren who brighten our days – does not
fade when our strength wanes. Indeed, their own
6
affection often revives our energy and brings us
hope and comfort.
These signs of living love, which have
their roots in God himself, give us courage and
remind us that “even if our outer self is wasting
away, our inner self is being renewed day by day”
(2 Cor 4:16). Especially as we grow older, let us
press forward with confidence in the Lord. May
we be renewed each day by our encounter with
him in prayer and in Holy Mass. Let us lovingly
pass on the faith we have lived for so many
years, in our families and in our daily encounter
with others. May we always praise God for his
goodness, cultivate unity with our loved ones,
open our hearts to those who are far away and,
in particular, to all those in need. In this way, we
will be signs of hope, whatever our age.
From the Vatican, 26 June 2025