Instituted in 2021 by Pope Francis to highlight their value in society, this year the World Day of Grandparents and Older Persons will be celebrated on Sunday, July 26, the liturgical memory of Saints Joachim and Anne, and will be titled "I will not forget you" (Is 49:15).

Read the entire message from Pope Leo XIV published for this celebration.

MESSAGE FROM THE HOLY FATHER LEON I will forget (Is 49,15)

Dear brothers and sisters:

Through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah the Lord promises that he will never forget any of us. He assures us that our faces are tattooed on the palms of his hands (cf. Is 49,16) and that his love is greater than that of a mother for her child (cf. Is 49,15). The prophet allows us to glimpse an intimate and personal dialogue in which God addresses each person and the people, addressing them as “you.” Also today we can read these words addressed to us and each one can hear that “I will never forget you” as referring to himself.

They are words that fill us with comfort and confidence. They are the response to an anguishing feeling that stirs the heart: "The Lord has abandoned me, my owner has forgotten me" (Is 49,14). How many times in Holy Scripture, particularly in the psalms, prayer is born from the disorientation of those who have the impression that their own life is of no interest to anyone and that they despise themselves! The painful feeling of being forgotten, unfortunately, is common in many people, especially among the elderly.

However, the love of God, who forgets no one, is presented as an act of justice and response to anonymity, in which very often human life ends up being lost. In particular, a veil seems to have spread over the lives of many older people that blurs the features of their faces and covers them with oblivion. This is what happens in houses where loneliness reigns and also in those places of hospitalization where the uniqueness of each person runs the risk of being reduced to the number of their bed or their pathology.

The celebration of the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly is an opportunity to rediscover that the Church is called to be the mother of all and that at any age it is possible to always discover oneself as sons and daughters of God. May this Day be, therefore, an encouragement for everyone, particularly for the youngest, and thus resume the beautiful custom of visiting one's own grandparents, the elders of the family and also those who do not receive any visits. Bring them, along with this message and your presence, the closeness and affection of the Pope. Do it in such a way that the words of the prophet “I will never forget you” take on the form of a tender and affectionate encounter. «In an era that tends to accelerate and fragment, human flesh continues to ask to be cared for and recognized by hands capable of tenderness, by attentive minds and good words. Digital culture multiplies connections and offers new meeting possibilities; However, the human heart retains an inalienable need for proximity» (Enc. Letter Magnifica humanitas, 239).

The Church knows the suffering of her oldest children, she knows well that many times they are looked at. with prejudices and are considered a burden; She is aware that an economy concentrated on profit weakens family relationships; knows that many elderly people are abandoned by their children who are forced to migrate or, in some cases, to fight in war. For each of these reasons, he is happy to announce the Lord's promise: “I will never forget you.”

It is pleasant to discover at any age, but especially when one is no longer young, as Blessed John Paul I said, that we are recipients «from God of a timeless love. We know: he always has his eyes open on us, even when it seems like it's night. He is a father; Furthermore, she is a mother» (Ángelus, September 10, 1978). Although it is not spontaneous to think like this, the truth is that not even when we are older we stop being sons and daughters, and that is why the invitation to return to the arms of God, whose love is paternal and maternal at the same time, remains valid every day.

The discovery of God's tenderness, for many, happens in the course of existence, many times actually in the last stretch of life. In fact, increasingly, unlike what happened in the past, it is possible to grow older without having had a real experience of faith. Advanced age, in this case, based on the questions we ask ourselves most urgently at this stage of life, can become the opportune time to start or resume a spiritual life. In this new path we can recognize that God, as Saint Augustine says, "is mother because she warms, because she nourishes, because she breastfeeds, because she guards" (Commentary on Psalm 26, II, 18). It is an awareness that helps not to feel ashamed of the fragility that appears and also to understand that we all, always, need each other and require attention and care. To God, who becomes our neighbor and whom we learn to recognize in his tenderness, we can now turn with filial confidence in prayer. It is never too late to start turning to Him. It can be a great gift for everyone.

Dear elders, Pope Francis spoke of you as a “new people” (Catechesis, February 23, 2022), while the number of elderly people has never been this high in human history. It is all the more important, then, with you, “new people”, to reflect on what our vocation can be when the fragility, which accompanies man from his birth, seems to take control. I want to tell you: do not be afraid of fragility! This weakness itself carries with it a new potentiality that also illuminates the other ages of life. In fact, when accepted and recognized, fragility "opens the heart to mutual help and to the invocation of the One who can give what no human power is capable of guaranteeing: the profound reconciliation of hearts and with it true peace" (Meeting with the Algerian community, Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, Algiers, April 13, 2026).

In this way we can live the time as Christians of old age: “fragile”, but at the same time “called”. A man and a woman can be reborn when they are older (cf. Jn 3,4-6) and exclaim with the prophet: "Their salvation lies in converting and being calm, their strength lies in trusting and being calm" (Is 30,15). A force that can become an invitation not to resort to the paths of arrogance and power to guarantee human coexistence, but to the paths of reconciliation and true peace. In this time, marked so strongly by war and social violence, many wonder what the world in which their own grandchildren will grow up will be like. I urge you, dear brothers, to join me in constant prayer so that peace may soon come to the entire world.

Elder sisters and brothers: I thank you because you support me every day with your prayers, especially when you recite the holy rosary. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I leave you this wish: that the Lord always renews you in faith, hope and charity, He, who never forgets us!

Vatican, June 15, 2026

LEÓN PP. XIV