CCBI News – Elder Care, Honour; Elections, Value of Life; Depression, Loneliness in Elderly; Earth Day, Pope Francis

April 22, 2022

Dear Friends of CCBI,

Elder care is more than health care: Honour your father and your mother!

Not to honour and care for the elderly as God commands and to treat them as something to discard, “is a grave sin,” said Pope Francis at the Papal Audience, Wednesday, April 20. In an article in the National Catholic Register, the Pope reminded us, “…it is thanks to them we are here. Please, do not leave them alone.” He recalled that he would often visit nursing homes in Buenos Aires, and once he spoke to a woman who had four children. A nurse told him it had been six months since they had visited. “This is treating the elderly like something disposable…” he exclaimed, adding, “We have all thought at one moment or another that our grandparents were annoying!” He urged us not to deny that we ever thought that way. Vice versa, I admit I sometimes find my grandchildren (and children!) annoying, too, but more often have the wisdom of experience to ‘hold that thought’ unless it absolutely must be spoken for the child or grandchild’s benefit. We mostly learn to control this aspect of human nature over time to maintain family relations and to avoid being overly critical (annoying?), but it also has theological and spiritual grounding in accepting and not judging people, and in developing selflessness. The fourth Commandment (the first after those regarding our relationship with God), ‘Honour your father and mother,’ is a solemn commitment, said the Pope. He continued, “It is not just about one’s own father and mother. It is about their generation and the generations before, whose leave-taking can also be slow and prolonged, creating a time and space of long-lasting coexistence with the other ages of life. In other words, it is about the old age of life.” That ‘solemn commitment’ means society is called to provide good health care, good psychological care and good palliative care as universal obligations. People of faith also deserve good spiritual care. While providing such care is a Commandment, the Pope tells us we should see it as honouring the elderly more than doing our duty.

Political Elections and the Value of Life

As elections loom in Canada and other countries, the Australian Bishops are calling for a new social contract that promotes the common good without leaving any person or social group behind. They point to the need to improve healthcare, especially the standards of aged care and palliative care, since human dignity requires that society give value to “the lives of all people, including those near the end of their lives.” Access to palliative care is essential, say the Bishops, so that the dying will not be pressured into opting for assisted suicide. In a statement that could be echoed by the Canadian bishops, they let it be known that: “We are concerned by laws that support the notion that a person’s life might reach a point at which it is no longer of value. This is particularly dangerous given it is often the most vulnerable who are at risk of receiving lower standards of health, aged, and palliative care.” Well known points in Canada, too, and material for questioning electoral candidates about their positions on these matters?

Depression and Loneliness in the Elderly

Research from Simon Fraser University shows a 67% increase in loneliness among women in Canada aged 65 to 74 during the pandemic and a rise in depression from a pre-pandemic level of 19% to 23% in 2020. Their data show that loneliness increased by 45% among men aged 65 to 74 during the pandemic, with a rise in depression from 12% to 14%. Respondents in the 75-to-84 age group reported a 37% increase in loneliness and a 33% increase in depression during the pandemic. Clearly, these figures are high and present a worrisome picture of the mental health of both younger senior citizens and the very elderly.

The researchers recommend that lessons learned from the pandemic should be applied post-pandemic, including increased funding as well as “… addressing causes of marginalization and supporting vulnerable populations; encouraging intergenerational connections; supporting partnership building; and ensuring reform to LTC (Long Term Care) to support the social and well-being needs of residents.” These recommendations are similar to conclusions previously noted several times in CCBI’s COVID-19 Bulletins, and to the research of the Ryerson-based National Institute on Ageing, with the additional backing of a longitudinal 20-year study supporting its findings. Definitely material to consider when questioning or considering electoral candidates!

Sources
Pope Francis: To Discard the Elderly ‘is a Grave Sin’| National Catholic Register (ncregister.com) – https://youtu.be/A7FNwoBM_RQ 
https://catholicmedia.org/australian-bishops-call-for-better-politics-ahead-of-federal-elections/
Research informs efforts to combat depression, loneliness in older adults (mcknightsseniorliving.com)

Earth Day!
Bridget Campion, PhD

April 22 is Earth Day. It was first organized in 1970 in the U.S. as part of the growing awareness of environment peril. In 1990, according to earthday.org, “Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage.”

In 2021, Pope Francis reflected on Earth Day. In his video message, he said that “nature deserves to be protected, if only because human interactions with God’s [God-given] biodiversity must take place with the utmost care and respect….” He observed that, with the pandemic, we have been able to see that as human interactions with the environment are more limited, so too are the detrimental effects of those interactions on the environment. With this, we have been shown “what we need to do to create a fair, equitable, environmentally safe planet.” We need to work together and we need to act immediately. The Pope said that we must take some good from the events of the past year, that “[t]he adversity that we are experiencing with the pandemic, and that we already feel in climate change, must spur us on, must drive us to innovation, to invention, to seek new paths.” He closed his remarks by urging world leaders “to act with courage, to act with justice and to always tell people the truth” so that people will be able to take steps to protect the planet and themselves from destruction.

This year, in an interview with Vatican News, Cardinal Czerny offered his thoughts about Earth Day, saying that the Catholic Church, “’cares very much about the Earth because the Earth was created by God, the same God who created all of us as siblings who are called to live together in our Common Home and take care of it.’” According to the Cardinal, God’s creation and the environmental issues we now face have been Pope Francis’ concerns “’from practically the beginning of his pontificate….’” In fact, as the Vatican News noted, Laudato si’ was “the first ever encyclical dedicated to the environment”, expounding as it did on the theological importance of the environment and ecological issues. However, Cardinal Czerny stated that it is in Pope Francis’ encyclical, Fratelli tutti, that “’we realize the profound importance that it is a single vocation to be siblings to one another and to take care of our Common Home.’” It is a vocation to which we are all called and one that now more than ever carries a great deal of urgency for the planet’s wellbeing and our own.

Sources
“The History of Earth Day” earthday.org website https://www.earthday.org/history/
Pope Francis, “Video Message of His Holiness Pope Francis to Mark the ‘Earth Day’” https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2021/documents/papa-francesco_20210422_videomessaggio-giornata-terra.html
Deborah Castellano Lubov “Cardinal Czerny: Earth Day demands urgent action” Vatican News April 22, 2022 https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-04/cardinal-czerny-earth-day-environment-pope-francis.html

Twitter

Pope Francis’s message: We all need to make a contribution to halt the destruction of our common home and to restore nature: governments, businesses and citizens – we must act like brothers and sisters who share the Earth, the common home that God has given us. #EarthDay
https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/1517435540949200897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1517435540949200897%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthetablet.org%2Fcourageous-craftsmanship-pope-shows-how-to-be-an-artisan-of-peace%2F

Pope Francis’ Intention for April

Let us pray for health care workers who serve the sick and the elderly, especially in the poorest countries; may they be adequately supported by governments and local communities! 

Moira, Bambi and Bridget