POPE INSTITUTES DAY TO HONOUR THE ELDERLY

VATICAN CITY Pope Francis on Sunday instituted a “World day for Grandparents and the elderly” in the Catholic church to be marked annually to honour them and to underscore their importance to society.

Francis, making the surprise announcement at his Sunday address, said it would be marked on the fourth Sunday of July each year.

The Catholic church already has a World day of Peace, which Pope Paul instituted in 1967, a World day of youth, which Pope John Paul II established in 1984 and a World day of the Poor, which Francis started in 2017.

The church holds special events and religious services on those days to draw attention to the needs of the groups. Francis, 84, has often called on society to cherish the elderly as a source of wisdom and he’s lamented a “throwaway culture” that puts them aside because they’re no longer productive.