“Blessed are those who have not lost hope” is the theme Pope Francis chose for the Fifth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, observed each year on the Sunday closest to the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anna, this year, 27 July.
In his message for the observance, Pope Leo XIV said, “Looking at the elderly in the spirit of this jubilee, we are called to help them experience liberation, especially from loneliness and abandonment.”
“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,” he wrote.
For decades, Catholic Near East Welfare Association has been providing emergency and ongoing support to elderly in need, including those made vulnerable by poverty, hunger, war, illness or loneliness once their adult children and grandchildren have left for work abroad.
During the pandemic, the elderly were among those most affected, and church workers supported by CNEWA were on the front lines. In India, the Sisters of the Destitute, a congregation of women religious of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, run a home for women who are alone, elderly, suffering from mental illness or in the last stages of life; Sister Ann Paul, S.D., tells of an outbreak of COVID-19 in July 2020.
In the West Bank, Sister Hildegard Enzenhofe, S.D.S., serves as the superior at the Beit Emmaus Home for the Elderly outside Jerusalem.
“In a nursing home as remote as ours, a health emergency is often particularly difficult, but even more so in a lockdown.”
In Armenia, CNEWA supports a winterization project that helps provide shelter, fuel for adequate heating and health care for hundreds of poor and elderly. The project pays for gas or electric bills, supplies firewood to those who do not have gas or electric heating, and includes emergency assistance for basic food and personal hygiene items.
CNEWA also supports Caritas Armenia’s program that provides 60 seniors with medication, food and hygiene packages monthly, as well as clothes and bedding twice a year. The program includes social events to help break the isolation, like excursions and walks, for those who can participate.
Vyacheslav Sargsyan, 67, who fled Nagorno-Karabakh for Artashat, Armenia, after the offensive of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in September 2023, said he received a cancer diagnosis after fleeing his homeland. Thanks to CNEWA-funded care, “social workers, caregivers and nurses visit the senior Sargsyans regularly, check their health, provide food and medicine and assist with household chores. Mr. Sargsyan could not afford his medication without the support of Caritas.”
“Just having someone visit us and exchange a few words is a big help,” Mr. Sargsyan said. “We used to have a large social circle, but now we are completely alone.”
Flora Sargsyan, who was working for Caritas Armenia in Gyumri, Armenia, in 2015, said an important part of visiting the elderly includes offering them encouragement.
“Most are alone and have lost hope,” she said. “They are anxious for our visits; they long to engage with others, to speak and to be heard. The elderly need proper hygiene, clean homes, hot meals; they also need medical care and attention. This is what our programs help provide. A caregiver or nurse might help bathe the patient or offer to cook or clean — even dress their hair.
“Our caregivers are vital to the elderly because they soothe their pain — both physical and emotional. They help ease the sufferings of their souls.
“Sometimes Caritas’s service providers are the only visitors for those living alone, so their companionship is of great psychological and moral support,” she said. “We serve with love and compassion, for we want to see our elderly as full members of society. After all, they are the creators of our past — and our present. We are thankful to them for the legacy they have left for future generations.”
Read the pope’s message for the Fifth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.