Pope warns no future without respecting elderly

November 19, 2013 - An era where "the elderly do not count", where they are often "discarded" and a nation that does not respect grandparents, have no future, because they have no memory no memory. The warning came from Pope Francis during Mass, Tuesday morning at the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. Taking inspiration from the elderly Eleazar in the Book of Maccabees who chose martyrdom in consistency with his faith, the Pope commended the man’s responsibility of leaving behind a noble and true legacy through his act of courage for young people. Lamenting our age where the elderly do not count and are discarded, the Pope said the elderly are the ones who carry history within them, who bring us doctrine, who bring us the faith and give it to us as a legacy. Like good old wine, grandparents are a treasure, as they have this inner strength to give us a noble inheritance, the Pope said. The memory of our ancestors brings us to the imitation of faith. The Pope thought of the many elderly people in nursing homes, many of them ‘abandoned’ to themselves, and said, “They are the treasure of our society.” Saying that grandparents often have had the heroic role in transmitting faith in times of persecution, the Holy Father evoked the fourth Commandment urging compassion for our ancestors.