Monday, April 7, 2008 at 12:12am
Pope praises role of grandparents
Grandparents should offer "a living witness of kindness, sacrifice and a daily and unreserved giving of self" to young people, Pope Benedict XVI told an audience Saturday. The pontiff spoke to members of the Pontifical Council for the Family, which was concluding a plenary session devoted to grandparents. He said that while the role of grandparents has changed, grandparents must remain "a living presence in the family, in the Church, and in society," Catholic World News reported Monday.
Too many elderly people think that they have become "a burden to their family," the Pope said. He decried the tendency to shunt the elderly off into nursing homes unnecessarily and the growing threat of euthanasia for those whose lives are deemed unproductive.
Family life has been battered, the Pope said, by "so-called new models of the family and rampant relativism." He said that the time is ripe to "start afresh" by restoring an appreciation for the gifts grandparents can bring to the lives of the grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.
Too many elderly people think that they have become "a burden to their family," the Pope said. He decried the tendency to shunt the elderly off into nursing homes unnecessarily and the growing threat of euthanasia for those whose lives are deemed unproductive.
Family life has been battered, the Pope said, by "so-called new models of the family and rampant relativism." He said that the time is ripe to "start afresh" by restoring an appreciation for the gifts grandparents can bring to the lives of the grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.