Pope Francis instituted a “World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly” on Sunday in the Roman Catholic Church, to be marked once a year to honor them and emphasize their importance to society.
Francis, making the surprise announcement at his address Sunday at noon, said he would be marked on the fourth Sunday in July each year in Catholic communities around the world.
The Catholic Church already has a World Day of Peace, which Pope Paul instituted in 1967, a World Youth Day, which Pope John Paul II established in 1984, and a World Day of the Poor, on which Francis started in 2017.
The world church organizes special events and religious services in those days to draw attention to the needs and attributes of the groups.
Francis, 84, has often called on society to value the elderly as a source of wisdom and experience and lamented a “discarded culture” that sets them aside because they are no longer productive.
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