{"id":1332362,"date":"2022-02-23T12:39:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T17:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1332362"},"modified":"2022-02-23T12:40:16","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T17:40:16","slug":"pope-francis-decries-exaltation-of-youth-and-contempt-for-old-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pope-francis-decries-exaltation-of-youth-and-contempt-for-old-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis Decries \u2018Exaltation of Youth\u2019 and \u2018Contempt for Old Age\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpope-francis-decries-exaltation-of-youth-and-contempt-for-old-age%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1332362&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">ROME \u2014 Pope Francis warned Wednesday of a growing trend to treat elderly people as \u201cwaste material\u201d to be discarded rather than as precious members of society.<\/p>\n<p>In his weekly General Audience in the Vatican, the pope <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/francesco\/en\/audiences\/2022\/documents\/20220223-udienza-generale.html\">began<\/a> a series of lectures on old age, noting how world demographics are shifting toward the elderly as people live longer and couples have fewer children.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>This makes old age \u201cone of the most urgent issues facing the human family at this time,\u201d he said, returning to the topic of a \u201cdemographic winter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere have never been so many of us in human history,\u201d he said of the elderly. \u201cThe risk of being discarded is even more frequent: never have so many as now, been at risk of being discarded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all live in a present where children, young people, adults and the elderly coexist,\u201d Francis said. \u201cBut the proportion has changed: longevity has become mass and, in large parts of the world, childhood is distributed in small doses.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe elderly are often seen as \u2018a burden,\u2019\u201d he lamented. \u201cIn the dramatic first phase of the pandemic it was they who paid the highest price. They were already the weakest and most neglected group: we did not look at them too much when they were alive, we did not even see them die.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19981330\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-1184519985.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-19981330\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-1184519985-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"660\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>An elderly priest is assisted as he prepares to enter Tokyo Dome to attend Mass by Pope Francis on November 25, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. (Carl Court\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe dominant culture has as its sole model the young adult, i.e. a self-made individual who always remains young,\u201d he said. \u201cBut is it true that youth contains the full meaning of life, while old age simply represents its emptying and loss?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe exaltation of youth as the only age worthy of embodying the human ideal, coupled with contempt for old age as frailty, decay, disability, has been the dominant image of twentieth-century totalitarianism,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n<p>Do the elderly need \u201cto apologize for their stubbornness in surviving at the expense of others?\u201d he asked rhetorically. \u201cOr can they be honored for the gifts they bring to everyone\u2019s sense of life?\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Francis went on to note a negative trend in \u201cdeveloped cultures\u201d to treat old age as insignificant, as \u201can age that has no special content to offer, nor meaning of its own to live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are assisted living facilities and hospices, he observed, but no real projects to help the elderly live life to the full. This, he declared, manifests \u201ca void of thought, imagination and creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cUnderneath this thinking, what makes a vacuum is that the elderly, the elderly are waste material: in this culture of waste, the elderly are like waste material,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYouth is beautiful, but eternal youth is a very dangerous illusion. Being old is just as important \u2014 and beautiful \u2014 is equally important as being young,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The alliance between generations \u201cis our lost gift and we have to get it back,\u201d he urged. \u201cIt must be found, in this culture of waste and in this culture of productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_19981354\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-1074395786.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-19981354\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-1074395786-1024x684-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"661\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Pope Francis blesses a disabled elderly woman during the weekly general audience in Paul VI hall on December 19, 2018 at the Vatican. ((VINCENZO PINTO\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The pontiff did not blame this intergenerational breakdown on young people alone, observing that the elderly, too, have a responsibility to reach out to the young.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe young must talk to the elderly, and the elderly to the young. And this bridge will be the transmission of wisdom in humanity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf grandparents fall back on their melancholies, young people will look even more to their smartphones,\u201d he warned. \u201cThe screen may stay on, but life will die out before its time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe old have resources of life already lived that they can call upon at any moment. Will they stand by and watch young people lose their vision, or will they accompany them by warming their dreams?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOld age is a gift for all stages of life. It is a gift of maturity, of wisdom,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Word of God will help us discern the meaning and value of old age; may the Holy Spirit grant us too the dreams and visions we need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tdwilliamsrome?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" data-show-count=\"false\">Follow @tdwilliamsrome<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ROME \u2014 Pope Francis warned Wednesday of a growing trend to treat elderly people as \u201cwaste material\u201d to be discarded rather than as precious members of society. In his weekly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1332362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1332362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1332362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1332362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1332362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}