Elderly Persons, a Treasure, not exiles: Pope tweets

Vatican City, 11 January 2014: In a post on the social media on Saturday, Pope Francis reflected on elderly persons who often feel like ‘exiles’ in their own families, adding that they are in fact, a treasure for the society. The Pontiff wrote on his Twitter account @pontifex: “No elderly person should be like an “exile” in our families. The elderly are a treasure for our society.”

Pope Francis has spoken against the ‘throw away’ culture of modern society where elderly people are often treated as ‘disposable commodities’. Pope Francis ‏ wrote on 25 October: ‘The “throw-away” culture produces many bitter fruits, from wasting food to isolating many elderly people.’

The Pope has now close to 11 million followers on his Twitter account @Pontifex. And the re-tweeting of Pope’s message is reported to be reaching at least 60 million people. The Pope’s English-language handle alone has over 3 million followers. The papal tweets are published in nine languages on the micro-blogging website.Source: VR Sedoc