Following the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis announced the institution of World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, which will take place each year on the fourth Sunday in July, close to the feast of Sts Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.

Recalling the upcoming feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple – when the elderly Simeon and Anna encountered the child Jesus and recognized Him as the Messiah – Pope Francis said, “the Holy Spirit even today stirs up thoughts and words of wisdom in the elderly.” The voice of the elderly “is precious,” he said, “because it sings the praises of God and preserves the roots of the peoples.”

The elderly, he continued, “remind us that old age is a gift and that grandparents are the link between the different generation, to pass on to the young the experience of life.”

The elderly must not be forgotten

The Holy Father said he instituted the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly because “grandparents are often forgotten, and we forget this wealth of preserving roots and passing on” what the elderly have received… Kompli aqra »

The official theme song of World Youth Day (WYD) 2023, scheduled to take place in Lisbon, Portugal, was released on Wednesday, exactly two years since the announcement of the city chosen by Pope Francis to host the next world meeting for young people.

Titled “Há Pressa no Ar” (“There’s a rush in the air”), the song is inspired by the WYD 2023 theme: “Mary rose up and went with haste” (Lk 1:39)… Kompli aqra »

An aerial picture showes barracks and buildings of former Nazi German Auschwitz I concentration camp complex in Oswiecim, Poland, January 14, 2020. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt – RC2XHE9D4H5B

“Today we commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and all those persecuted and deported by the Nazi regime,” Pope Francis said at his weekly General Audience.

His remarks came on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which occurs each year on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau – the largest Nazi concentration and death camp – by the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War… Kompli aqra »

Għeżież ħuti, l-għodwa t-tajba!

Illum nixtieq nieqaf fuq it-talb li nistgħu nagħmlu b’silta mill-Bibbja. Il-kelmiet tal-Iskrittura Mqaddsa ma ġewx miktuba biex jibqgħu msakkra fuq il-papir, fuq l-iskroll jew fuq il-karta, imma biex jiġu milqugħa minn persuna li titlob, biex tħallihom jagħmlu l-frott f’qalbha. Il-kelma ta’ Alla tinżel fil-qalb. Il-Katekiżmu jistqarr: “It-talb għandu jsieħeb lill-qari tal-Iskrittura – il-Bibbja ma nistgħux naqrawha qisha kienet xi rumanz – biex ikun hemm djalogu bejn Alla u l-bniedem” (n… Kompli aqra »

Syria’s education system is “overstretched, underfunded, fragmented and unable to provide safe, equitable and sustained services to millions of children,” UNICEF said in a statement on Sunday.

In conflict-ridden Syria, more than half of children continue to be deprived of education due to the nearly decade-long crisis that has adversely impacted the education system. In March 2021, the crisis will reach a grim milestone of ten years… Kompli aqra »