High above the calm waters of Lake Albano, just outside Rome, the picturesque town of Castel Gandolfo played host to a special conference of the Catholic Grandparents’ Association. Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of South Africa, was one of the keynote speakers, who praised the vital role grandparents play—especially in societies where parents must work far from home.

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Card. Wilfrid Fox Napier, Archbishop Emeritus of Durban, South Africa, noted, “You know, one of the features of the Old Testament is the blessing that was promised to families and was said: ‘Their blessing is to the third and fourth generation.’ Now, if you analyze that a little bit, it's going to be the grandparents, the parents, the children, and then the grandchildren.”

Card. Napier further explained:

“In South Africa… in most families, the father and mother are away working. They have to go—just for survival. So generally, grandparents are the ones who are bringing up the young children. They can do a certain job to a point, but children need to emulate their parents.

“And that’s where I think we have to have Grandparents' Association developing in such a way that it brings in the parents much more and helps to stabilize parents where they are in a difficult situation. So, it seems to be an answer to a certain need that has developed in modern society.”

The Catholic Grandparents Association was officially launched in 2009 by Catherine Wiley.

Catherine Wiley, Foundress of the Catholic Grandparents’ Association, highlighted:

“The Catholic Grandparents’ Association is simply an all-encompassing name, but the mission of the Catholic Grandparents’ Association is to help grandparents to pass on the faith and to keep prayer at the heart of family life.

“It wasn't until I became a grandparent that I realized that my faith... which is very precious to me and which has sustained me all my life—in all the ups and downs of my life—when my first grandchildren were born, I was absolutely devastated really to find out that they weren't going to be baptized.”

That moment of heartbreak was the beginning of something much bigger. And the association today has grown into a global network, now with members on every continent.

Wiley further emphasized:

“There was a great need for a grandparents' association to bring grandparents together, to help them, to share with them and support them in trying to pass on the faith—which is very difficult in a hostile world. And so, we started organizing pilgrimages, we have a faith café, which takes place every month, which is people from all over the world joined by Zoom and we’re working hard with the Dicastery in Rome to establish ministries for grandparents in every diocese and every parish throughout the world.”

Catherine and the association were successful in asking Pope Benedict XVI to write a prayer for the elderly, and upon their request, Pope Francis announced July 28th as the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.

Another one of the conference’s keynote speakers was Professor Gabriella Gambino, Undersecretary at the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life:

“I was talking about the importance of the mission of the elderly in the Church and in society. This is very important nowadays, where this discharged culture often puts the elderly out—out of society, out of families, and out of the Church many times. But every baptized person has a mission in the Church throughout their entire life. We are all called to live a fullness in Christ.

“If they are aware of that, they can give a great contribution in the Church—to the evangelization of new generations.

“They pass on the faith. They pass on the memory. That is the consciousness of belonging to a father. The generativity of the elderly is something that we have to be aware of—in the Church and in society.”

As the conference came to a close, there was a spirit of renewed mission and deep gratitude—especially from the woman who began it all:

“The aim is to support grandparents, to acknowledge them, to validate them, to encourage them… just to realize that they have a vocation,” Wiley said. “The vocation of a grandparent is to pass on the faith. And please God, in this year of hope, I have every hope that we will—because grandparents never give up hope.”

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Adapted by Jacob Stein

Produced by Colm Flynn; Camera by Sergio Natoli, Alberto Basile, Fabio Gonella; Special thanks & Credits Catholic Grandparents’ Association