“We need a new alliance between the young and the elder, so that the lymph of those who have a long experience of life behind them can irrigate the shoots of hope of those who are growing up,” the Pope said during the ceremony held in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday.

It is about growing together, he said, adding that “the lush tree and the little ones who need the nest, grandparents with their children and grandchildren, the elderly with the young”.

He urged not to forget grandparents and the elderly, because “many times, thanks to a caress from them, we have risen up again, we have resumed our journey, we have felt loved, healed from within”.

Francis insisted that they have sacrificed for us and “we cannot take them off the agenda of our priorities. Let us grow together, let us go forward together,” the Bishop of Rome added.

At noon, from a window of his study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, Francis addressed the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square after the Angelus prayer, and recalled that the Day of Grandparents and the Elderly will take place shortly before World Youth Day, convened from August 1 to 6 in Lisbon, Portugal.

He asked that “the closeness between the two days be an invitation to promote an alliance between the generations, so necessary, because the future is built together, in the sharing of experiences and mutual care between young and old”.

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