On the day of the Nativity of Mary, Sunday, September 8th, there was a Pilgrimage of families, grandparents and grandchildren, to the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock, Queen of Ireland, sponsored by the Catholic Grandparents Association. In the small town of in the North, Our Lady appeared to a group of people, ranging in age from 6 to 75, on August 21st, 1879; this shrine is the most visited place of Catholic worship in Ireland. The Pontifical Council for the Family was represented on that occasion by the Undersecretary, Msgr. Carlos Simon Vazquez. On the previous evening, Saturday, September 7th, the faithful gathered in the Sanctuary, in connection with St. Peter‘s Square in Rome, where the Prayer Vigil for Peace in Syria, in the Middle East and the world, called for by Pope Francis, was being held.
 
On the eve of his departure for Ireland, we asked the Undersecretary how grandparents today can be the “living presence in the family, in the Church and in society," Pope Benedict XVI called them to be until the final days of his Pontificate.
 
«Grandparents are a living presence above all through the task that Benedict XVI had most at heart: the educational challenge», Msgr. Simon Vazquez said. «As Pope Ratzinger said on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly of our Council in April 2008, grandparents are the ‘living memory’ of the family, they are the ones who keep the intergenerational relationship alive, with prudence and the wisdom of experience, by transmitting the authentic values of life and social life, which they have experience so many times with suffering, sacrifice, and learning from mistakes». Grandparents, therefore, help the parents with the integral formation of the new generations. In the current context, a «throwaway culture»—as Pope Francis called it—of power, profit, possession, «grandparents bring the gift of testimony of the family as a communion of persons, in which each one values and offers what he/she is and not what he/she possesses, by making the culture of essentiality and love, of gratitude, shine forth. Old age is not only the decline of human existence, but a stage of life in which one is able to convey a real and true education for life, the family, faith and generosity».
 
Grandparents will be major protagonists in the Pilgrimage of Families, promoted by our Dicastery, to the Tomb of St. Peter, with Pope Francis, in Rome on October 26th and 27th.