World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly

The fifth “World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly” will take place in the United States on Sunday, September 7, 2025. The theme for 2025 was inspired by Sirach 14:2:

“Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Lost Hope”

During this Jubilee of 2025, Pope Leo highlights the hope of the elderly in the final stage of their lives.

Pope Leo’s Message for 2025

Share Pope Leo’s message for the Fifth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. You may read the document online on the Vatican website or download a printable document.

Read Online
(on vatican.va)   PDF Document
 (download)

The Jubilee we are now celebrating helps us to realize that hope is a constant source of joy, whatever our age. When that hope has also been tempered by fire over the course of a long life, it proves a source of deep happiness.

In the Bible, God repeatedly demonstrates his providential care by turning to people in their later years. This was the case not only with Abraham, Sarah, Zechariah and Elizabeth, but also with Moses, who was called to set his people free when he was already eighty years old (cf. Ex 7:7). God thus teaches us that, in his eyes, old age is a time of blessing and grace, and that the elderly are, for him, the first witnesses of hope. Augustine asks, “What do we mean by old age?” He tells us that God himself answers the question: “Let your strength fail, so that my strength may abide within you, and you can say with the Apostle, ‘When I am weak, then I am strong.’”

From biblical times, the Jubilee has been understood as a time of liberation. Slaves were freed, debts were forgiven and land was returned to its original owners. The Jubilee was a time when the social order willed by God was restored, and inequalities and injustices accumulated over the years were remedied. … Looking at the elderly in the spirit of this Jubilee, we are called to help them experience liberation, especially from loneliness and abandonment. This year is a fitting time to do so.

From Pope Leo’s Message for the Fifth World Day For Grandparents and the Elderly, published June 26, 2025.

The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life at the Vatican in Rome provides resources to priests and parishes for the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. In 2025, their web page for the Fifth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly contains the following resources:

• Prayer for the Fifth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly
• Celebrating the Jubilee with the elderly unable to physically make the pilgrimage
• A Pastoral Kit (contains many of the ideas mentioned below)

The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life provided the following resources to priests and parishes for the first World Day in 2021. (Documents are formatted for A4 paper size, so when printing choose the “size-to-fit” option.)

• Cover letter from Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect
• Pastoral Guidelines. Contains:
  • A reflection on the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly
    • the coronavirus pandemic
    • pastoral concern for older people
    • crisis in family relations
  • Suggestions for visiting grandparents and older people
  • Plenary Indulgence
• Liturgy Notes. Contains:
  • Dedicate one Mass on the Sunday of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly to a celebration with grandparents and elderly people of the community.
    • Encourage the presence of older people at the Mass.
    • Members of the community can organize transport for those who are unable to get there independently.
    • Young people from the parish can present the Holy Father's Message to grandparents and the elderly at the celebration.
    • The collection from the Masses for this World Day can be dedicated to supporting projects to help poor elderly people in the community.
  • Homily Notes (note: 2021 was “Year B” in the lectionary cycle, so the readings are different in 2022)
  • Suggestions for Prayers of the Faithful
  • Blessing on a Long Life

Catechesis on Old Age

Beginning in February 2022, Pope Francis’ Wednesday audience catecheses were reflections on old age. The catechesis of 18 talks is available online from the Vatican website. It has been compiled in a downloadable PDF document for those who do not have access to or prefer not to read the text online:

Pope Francis’ Catecheses
on Old Age

In 2021, Pope Francis established a “World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly” to take place each year on the fourth Sunday in July. This date was chosen because it is close to the feast day of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.

The bishops of the United States transferred the celebration to the first weekend after Labor Day in September to coincide with National Grandparents Day in the United States (see the USCCB website).

Fr. Jorge Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis, standing with his brother and sisters. Seated: Regina, his mother (on left), Giovanni and Rosa, his paternal grandparents (center), and Mario, his father (on right).