2014-10-01 18:24:00

UN International Day of Older Persons: "Leave No One Behind"


For Catholics 1 October is celebrated as the feast of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, a Carmelite nun of Lisieux  who was born at Alençon, France in  1873. She died at Lisieux in 1897 aged only 24. Her spirituality and holiness and the many miracles performed through her intercession caused her canonization seventeen years after her death.

Yet 1 October is also the United Nations’ International Day of Older Persons.

In a remarkable coincidence the UN International Day of Older Persons follows on the heels of emotional scenes witnessed last Sunday in St. Peter’s  Square, at the Vatican, when 50 000 senior citizens descended on Rome to be with Pope Francis. Through moving testimonies and life stories, the grandparents also listened to Pope Francis speak on the beauty of life in old age. The ceremony was also attended by Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI. Pope Francis boldly proclaimed, “A people that does not have care for the elderly, that does not treat them well, has no future: such a people loses its memory and its roots.”

The UN theme of the 2014 commemoration of the International Day of Older Persons is “Leaving No One Behind: Promoting a Society for All.” The UN Secretary-General has said, "Older persons make wide-ranging contributions to economic and social development. However, discrimination and social exclusion persist. We must overcome this bias in order to ensure a socially and economically active, secure and healthy ageing population." Mr. Ban Ki-moon said.

 The UN estimates that the population of over 60 is expected to reach 1.4 billion by 2030. In the meantime, speaking, today, 1 October, on the occasion of the 24th UN International Day of Older Persons, Ms. Kornfeld-Matte The new United Nations Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, has urged governments to ensure that the concerns of older persons are reflected in the post-2015 development agenda. Governments around the world need to promote full inclusion of older persons in society by combatting ageism, age discrimination and stigmatization.

Ms. Kornfeld-Matte says a demographic revolution is underway and the world cannot afford to leave behind millions of older persons. “Age, as well as gender and where people live, affect the enjoyment of human rights by older persons, who are often stigmatized as ‘non-productive’ or ‘irrelevant’, added Ms. Kornfeld-Matte

Pope Francis in his meeting with the aged put it more poignantly when he said, “(but) there is also the reality of the abandonment of the elderly: how many times we discard older people with attitudes that are akin to a hidden form of euthanasia…..We Christians, together with all people of good will, are called to patiently build a more diverse, more welcoming, more humane, more inclusive society, that does not need to discard the weak in body and mind.” Pope Francis said. 

(e-mail: engafrica@vatiradio.va)

 








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