Pope Francis invites grandparents to join a ‘spiritual and non-violent revolution’

CNA Staff   By CNA Staff

May 10, 2022 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 2 Print

 

Pope Francis visits the San Raffaele Borona assisted living home in Rieti, Italy, Oct. 4, 2016. / Vatican Media.

Vatican City, May 10, 2022 / 03:35 am (CNA).

Pope Francis invited grandparents and the elderly on Tuesday to join a “spiritual and non-violent revolution.”

In his message for the second World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, issued on May 10, the pope urged seniors not to despair at their frailty but to embrace “a new mission” of caring for others in a world torn apart by conflict.

“Old age is no time to give up and lower the sails, but a season of enduring fruitfulness: a new mission awaits us and bids us look to the future,” he wrote in the 1,600-word message, dated May 3.

“‘The special sensibility that those of us who are elderly have for the concerns, thoughts, and the affections that make us human should once again become the vocation of many. It would be a sign of our love for the younger generations.’”

“This would be our own contribution to the revolution of tenderness, a spiritual and non-violent revolution in which I encourage you, dear grandparents and elderly persons, to take an active role.”

Pope Francis established the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly in 2021. The day takes place annually on the fourth Sunday of July, on or close to the July 26 Feast of Sts. Anne and Joachim, the grandparents of Jesus. This year, it will be celebrated on July 24.

The Vatican unveiled the theme for the second celebration of the day in February, taken from Psalm 92:15: “In old age they will still bear fruit.”

The theme “intends to emphasize how grandparents and the elderly are a value and a gift both for society and for ecclesial communities,” the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life said.

The dicastery’s prefect, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, was due to present the pope’s message at a Vatican press conference on May 10.

The 85-year-old pope has highlighted the importance of care and respect for the elderly since his election in 2013.

In February, he launched a new general audience catechetical cycle devoted to old age.

More to follow.

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Pope Francis to bless satellite set to launch his words into space

March 27, 2023 Catholic News Agency 9
Pope Francis gives an extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica March 27, 2020. / Vatican Media.

Rome Newsroom, Mar 27, 2023 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Wednesday will bless a satellite that will launch his words into space on June 10.

The “Spes Satelles,” Latin for “Satellites of Hope,” will be launched on a rocket taking off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

According to the Vatican, the miniaturized satellite will hold a copy of a book documenting the pope’s urbi et orbi blessing of March 27, 2020, when, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, he blessed the world from St. Peter’s Square with the words “Lord, may you bless the world, give health to our bodies, and comfort our hearts.”

“You ask us not to be afraid,” the pope prayed. “Yet our faith is weak and we are fearful. But you, Lord, will not leave us at the mercy of the storm.”

Pope Francis speaks in an empty St. Peter's Square during a holy hour and extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing, March 27, 2020. Vatican Media/CNA
Pope Francis speaks in an empty St. Peter’s Square during a holy hour and extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing, March 27, 2020. Vatican Media/CNA

The book, “Why Are You Afraid? Have You No Faith? The World Facing the Pandemic,” has been converted into a nanobook, a 2-millimeter by 2-millimeter by 0.2-millimeter silicon plate, for transport to space.

Pope Francis will bless the satellite and the nanobook after his weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square on March 29.

The Vatican said March 27 the CubeSat, the name for miniature satellites, will travel aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX’s partially reusable two-stage launch platform. It will be hosted on the ION SCV-011ION platform, a satellite carrier developed and built by the Italian company D-Orbit.

The Italian Space Agency will operate the satellite, which was built by the Polytechnic University of Turin.

The Italian Space Agency will operate the satellite, which was built by the Polytechnic University of Turin, to be launched on a rocket taking off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on June 10, 2023. Credit: Holy See Press Office
The Italian Space Agency will operate the satellite, which was built by the Polytechnic University of Turin, to be launched on a rocket taking off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on June 10, 2023. Credit: Holy See Press Office

“The satellite is equipped with a radio transmitter as well as onboard instruments to be maneuvered from the ground,” a press release stated.

While in orbit, the satellite will broadcast decipherable statements from Pope Francis on the theme of hope and peace in English, Italian, and Spanish.

The president of the Italian Space Agency, Giorgio Saccoccia, said the Holy See asked the agency to identify a way for Pope Francis’ words of hope “to cross the earth’s borders and reach from space the greatest possible number of women and men on our troubled planet.”

“For those of us who are used to seeing space as the privileged place from which to observe the world and communicate with it without borders, it was easy to imagine a quick, humble and effective solution to offer wings to the Holy Father’s message,” he added.

The Italian Space Agency will operate the satellite, which was built by the Polytechnic University of Turin, to be launched on a rocket taking off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on June 10, 2023. Credit: Holy See Press Office
The Italian Space Agency will operate the satellite, which was built by the Polytechnic University of Turin, to be launched on a rocket taking off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on June 10, 2023. Credit: Holy See Press Office

The secretary of the Dicastery for Communication, Father Lucio Adrian Ruiz, said “space has a fascination for everyone, especially for young people. Space has that mystery of the universal, the deep, the magnificent, and it makes us all dream.”

By launching Pope Francis’ words of the March 27, 2020, blessing into space, the Vatican hopes to signify that the pope’s prayer, blessing, and universal call to hope continue to be relevant for men and women of goodwill today, he said.

You can follow the launch and learn more at the Spei Satelles website.

[…]

1 Comment

  1. Non-violence and peaceful co-existence are good for health. Wishing the Elderly and grandparents happy and healthy day to day existence. God bless.

    Reply

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