Pope Benedict XVI, who has expessed an affinity for grandparents, is to write a special prayer for grandmothers and grandfathers across the world.
Inspired by the more than 4,000 grandparents who attended the first National Grandparents Pilgrimage in Ireland last year, the pope plans to introduce the prayer in time for the second annual event on September 14.
A Dublin newspaper, the Irish Independent, reported that the prayer will have its first recital at the Knock Shrine, site of the National Grandparents Pilgrimage.
Knock Shrine is located on the grounds of Knock Parish Church in County Mayo, on Ireland's west coast. In 1879, it is said that the Blessed Mother Mary, St. Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist appeared at the south gable of the church. Fifteen people witnessed the apparition, according to the website of Knock Shrine.
Pope John Paul II visited the Shrine in 1979, the centennial of the apparition, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta visited in 1993. Some 1.5 million people make a pilgrimage to the Shrine each year.
Earlier this year, before his well-received trip to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI praised grandparents and urged them to return to being a greater presence in the family structure, calling grandparents "a treasure which the younger generation should not be denied."
The pope made his remarks during an April conference at the Vatican organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family. The theme was Grandparents: Their Witness and Presence in the Family.
The conference sought to highlight the role of grandparents in fostering family unity, and as mediators in the relationship between their married children and the children's spouses, and between their children and grandchildren, according to the Rome-based Zenit News Agency.
Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, the archbishop of Cebu, Philippines, opened the conference by telling the pope that "there emerged feelings of gratitude with regard to grandparents, persons rich with affection, delicacy, authority, and goodness, who lovingly hand on religious and moral values."
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Italy said grandparents function as "authentic networks of passing on the faith to the new generations."
The Holy Father then expanded on the comments, saying, "It is not possible to plan the future without relating to a past rich with significant experiences and spiritual and moral points of reference. … If grandparents constitute a precious resource, as is often said and from many quarters, then consistent choices must be made that permit this resource to be better valued."
The pontiff also said that in today's society, with children less frequently raised in an extended-family environment, grandparents remain "a living presence in the family, in the church, and in society."
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