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        Popes Francis, Benedict Stress Importance of Elderly in Society

   by Reuters

   Elderly people, including former Pope Benedict, attended a gathering of
   the wise and wrinkled at the Vatican on Sunday, where Pope Francis
   denounced the neglect and abandonment of the old as "hidden
   euthanasia."

   During the festive event in St. Peter's Square, Francis addressed some
   40,000 elderly people - grandfathers, grandmothers, widows and
   widowers.

   The pope sought to underscore the importance of the old in society and
   he said homes for the elderly could not be allowed to become "prisons"
   where care took a back seat to business interests by those who run
   them.

   According to the World Health Organization, there are 600 million
   people over 60 in the world today and the figure is expected to double
   over the next 11 years and reach two billion by 2050, most in the
   developing world.

   It was only the third time since his resignation in February 2013 that
   Benedict, 87, attended a public event. He looked relatively healthy as
   he walked into the square using a cane and took a special seat in the
   front.

   Benedict, wearing a white overcoat, stayed for about an hour to hear
   old people speak about their lives and listen to a speech by his
   successor and then left before Francis led a Mass.

   Benedict, the first pope to resign in six centuries, has been living
   out his retirement in near isolation in a former convent in the Vatican
   gardens. He is assisted by aides and receives few visitors.

   Compared to 'wise grandfather'

   Francis, 77, warmly embraced his older predecessor twice during the
   service and told the crowd that having Benedict, who now has the title
   Emeritus Pope, living in the Vatican was "like having a wise
   grandfather at home."

   "Violence against the elderly is as inhuman as that against children,"
   Francis said told the crowd, which was entertained by singers including
   world renowned tenor Andrea Bocelli.

   "How many times are old people just discarded, victims of an
   abandonment that is tantamount to hidden euthanasia. This is the result
   of a throw-away culture that is hurting our world so much," he said.

   Since his election as the first non-European pope in 1,300 years,
   Francis has often called for more respect for the vital role of old
   people, particularly in rich countries, as vital transmitters of
   experience and knowledge.

   He said homes for elderly people "should really be homes, not prisons"
   where people live "forgotten, hidden, neglected."

   One of the elderly couples who addressed the gathering, Mubarak and
   Aneesa Hano, were Christian refugees from northern Iraq who had to flee
   their home because the area had been taken over by Islamic State
   militants.

   At the end of the service, the pope gave some of the elderly a book of
   the Gospel of St. Mark in large print.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/pope-francis-pope-benedict-elderly-ma
   ss/2465214.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/pope-francis-pope-benedict-elderly-mass/2465214.html