Pope Francis speaks for the old
Pope Francis, 85, has long spotlighted older people and regularly denounces how they are treated like garbage in a “throwaway culture.”
On a trip to Canada this week, as he relied on aides to get in and out of wheelchairs, Francis used his own visible frailty to again demand dignity and respect for other older people.
In Alberta, Francis said that there needed to be “a future in which the elderly are not cast aside because, from a ‘practical’ standpoint, they are no longer useful.”
Analysis: The world is aging rapidly. A U.N. report predicted that by 2050, people age 60 and over will exceed people under 15. “Never as many as now, never as much risk of being discarded,” Francis said.
Context: Francis — who has had numerous health issues — is not the first pope to make the dignity of the old a central concern of his later papacy. His immediate predecessors ailed in public or resigned citing advanced age.
(source: nytimes.com)
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