On Old Age

The late Pope Francis wrote the preface for this book in Italian by Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop Emeritus of Milan, titled “Awaiting a New Beginning. Reflections on Old Age.”  Pope Francis wrote this on February 7, 2025 before his death on April 21, 2025, at age 88.

Let not the short form of this book be deceptive: these are very dense pages, to read and reread. From Angelo Scola’s reflections I gather some particularly resonant points with what my own experience has taught me. Angelo Scola speaks to us of old age, his old age, which he writes about with a disarmingly intimate touch: “it came upon me with sudden acceleration and in many ways unexpectedly.”

Some extracts from the preface

Already in his choice of the word with which he defines himself as “old;” I find a resonance with the author. Yes, we must not be afraid of old age, we must not fear embracing becoming old, because life is life, and sugarcoating reality means betraying the truth of things. Restoring pride to a term too often considered unhealthy is a gesture for which we should be grateful to Cardinal Scola.

To say “old” does not mean “to be discarded,” as a degraded culture of waste sometimes leads us to think. Saying “old” instead means saying experience, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, thoughtfulness, listening, slowness… Values of which we are in great need!

It is true, one becomes old, but this is not the problem: the problem is how one becomes old.

If we live this time of life as a grace, and not with resentment; if we accept the time (even a long one) in which we experience diminished strength, the increasing fatigue of the body, the reflexes no longer what they were in our youth — with a sense of gratitude and thankfulness — well then, old age too becomes an age of life which, as Romano Guardini* taught us, is truly fruitful and capable of radiating goodness.

Amid the frenzy of our societies, often devoted to the ephemeral and the unhealthy taste for appearances, the wisdom of grandparents becomes a shining beacon, shedding light on uncertainty and providing direction to grandchildren, who can draw from their experience something “extra” for their daily lives.

The words that Angelo Scola dedicates to the theme of suffering, which often takes hold in becoming old, and consequently to death, are precious gems of faith and hope.

“… these are pages born “from the thought and the affection” of Cardinal Scola: not only from thought, but also from the emotional dimension, which is the one to which Christian faith points, since Christianity is not so much an intellectual act or a moral choice, but rather the affection for a person — that Christ who came to meet us and decided to call us friends.

Death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something. It is a new beginning, as the title wisely highlights, because eternal life, which those who love already begin to experience on earth within the daily tasks of life — is beginning something that will never end”.

And it is precisely for this reason that it is a “new” beginning, because we will live something we have never fully lived before: eternity.

With these pages in hand, I would ideally like to repeat the same gesture I made just after donning the white robe of the papacy in the Sistine Chapel: to embrace with great esteem and affection my brother Angelo — now, both of us older than we were on that day in March 2013. But still united by the gratitude to this loving God who offers us life and hope at every age of our living.

Vatican City, February 7, 2025

See HERE

Note: *Romano Guardini (17 February 1885 – 1 October 1968) was an Italian, naturalised German Catholic priest, philosopher and theologian.  Guardini’s books were often powerful studies of traditional themes in the light of present-day challenges or examinations of current problems as approached from the Christian, and especially Catholic, tradition. The 1990s saw something of a revival of interest in his works and person. Several of his books were reissued in the original German and in English translation.