General Audiences

Pope at Audience: The good that has been done and sown in old age is the best inheritance we can pass on

11/05/2022   St Peter's Square, the Vatican

Catechesis on Old Age

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today we will talk about Judith, a biblical heroine. The conclusion of the book that bears her name – we have listened to a passage – summarizes the final part of the life of this woman, who defended Israel from its enemies. Judith is a young and virtuous Jewish widow who, thanks to her faith, beauty and cunning, saved the city of Bethulia and the people of Judah from the siege of Holofernes, general of Nebuchadnezzar king of Assyria, an overbearing and contemptuous enemy of God… Read more »

Pope at Audience: Faith is not a symbol of our weakness but rather a sign of its strength

04/05/2022   The Vatican

Catechesis on Old Age

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

On the path of these catecheses on old age, today we meet a biblical figure – and old man – named Eleazar, who lived at the time of the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. He is a wonderful character. His character gives us a testimony of the special relationship that exists between the fidelity of old age and the honour of faith… Read more »

Pope at Audience: The bridge between youths and the elderly must be rebuilt in a strong way

27/04/2022   The Vatican

Catechesis on Old Age – Naomi, the alliance between the generations that opens up the future

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

Today we will continue to reflect on the elderly, on grandparents, on old age – the word seems ugly but no, the elderly are great, they are beautiful! And today we will let ourselves be inspired by the splendid book of Ruth, a jewel of the Bible… Read more »

Pope at Audience: Bring your young children, closer to the elderly, always bring them closer

20/04/2022   The Vatican

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today, with the help of the Word of God that we have heard, we open a passage through the fragility of old age, marked in a special way by the experiences of confusion and despondency, of loss and abandonment, of disillusionment and doubt. Of course, the experiences of our frailty in the face of life’s dramatic – sometimes tragic – situations can occur at any stage of life… Read more »

The Pope at Audience: Every war represents an outrage against God

13/04/2022   The Vatican

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

We are in the middle of Holy Week, which lasts from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. Both these Sundays are characterized by the feast that takes place around Jesus. But they are two different feasts.

Last Sunday, we saw Christ solemnly entering Jerusalem, as though for a feast, welcomed as the Messiah: cloaks (cf. Lk 19:36) and branches cut from trees (cf Mt 21:8) were laid before him on the ground… Read more »

Pope at Audience: Elderly can guide and save future generations

16/03/2022   The Vatican

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

The bible narrative – with the symbolic language of the time in which it was written – tells us something shocking. God was so embittered by the widespread wickedness of humans, which had become a normal style of life, that he thought he had made a mistake in creating them and decided to eliminate them. A radical solution… Read more »

Pope at Audience: children and the elderly give us another ability to see life

02/03/2022   The Vatican

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

In the Bible account of the genealogies, one is immediately struck by their tremendous longevity: we are talking about centuries! When does old age begin here, we wonder? And what is the significance of the fact that these ancient fathers live so long after fathering their children? Fathers and sons live together for centuries! This passage of time in terms of centuries, narrated in a ritual style, confers a strong, very strong symbolic meaning to the relationship between longevity and genealogy… Read more »

Pope at General Audience: We need to get back the alliance between generations in this culture of waste

23/02/2022   The Vatican

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning! 

We have finished the catechesis on St Joseph. Today we begin a catechetical journey that seeks inspiration in the Word of God on the meaning and value of old age. Let us reflect on old age. For some decades now, this stage of life has concerned a veritable “new people”, the elderly. There have never been so many of us in human history… Read more »

Pope at Audience: to be Christian means safeguarding all lives

16/02/2022   The Vatican

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today we conclude the cycle of catecheses on the figure of St Joseph. These catecheses are complementary to the Apostolic Letter Patris corde, written on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of St Joseph as Patron of the Catholic Church by Blessed Pius IX. But what does this title mean? … Read more »