ANGELUS: JOHN PAUL II REFLECTS ON THE VALUE OF OLD AGE

VATICAN CITY, JUL 25, 1999 (VIS) - Prior to reciting the angelus today from the apostolic palace in Castelgandolfo, Pope John Paul reflected on tomorrow's liturgical memory of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary. He said this induced him "to briefly speak about old age and its value, especially in view of the fact that 1999 is the international year of the elderly."

Old age, he said, "is a bearer of special 'talents', thanks to the patrimony of experience, knowledge and teachings of which the older person is custodian. For this reason, in all cultures, old age is synonymous with wisdom and equilibrium. By their very presence, older people remind everyone, especially young people, that life on earth is a 'parable', with its beginning and its end."

"In societies of advanced industrial and technological development," observed the Holy Father, "the condition of older people is ambivalent: On the one and they are less and less integrated into the family and social fabric; on the other hand, their role becomes ever more important, above all for the care and education of grandchildren. Young couples, in fact, often find grandparents to be an indispensable help."

The Pope denounced those societies "dominated by economy and profit (because) they tend to penalize 'unproductive' age groups, considering persons more for their usefulness than for themselves."

He highlighted how "in Sacred Scripture old age is surrounded by veneration," and asked that societies today venerate and love older people. Citing his 1981 Apostolic Exhortation "Familiaris Consortio," he concluded: "May every family and each of its members know how to guard, reveal and communicate love."

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