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In his usual fatherly approach to issues and situations, our own Bishop Emmanuel Badejo has counseled the Grandparents in Nigeria saying, “You are still useful, needed in this troubled nation”.

 As the universal Church, through The Holy Father, Pope Francis has asked us to do, the Catholic Diocese of Oyo in faraway Nigeria, last celebrates the gift of all our elderly and grandparents. Addressing the elderly, the bishop said, “You are a gift and treasure to us especially in Africa, and will always be cherished. I greet you all and pray for you. Joy, fulfillment, and good health of mind and body shall be yours till the end. We cherish your wisdom, experience, and faith. You are still useful and needed in this troubled nation, the Church, the family, and the lives of your children and grandchildren.  please continue to pray and work for peace, family values, and love. Do not just sit back and watch. Please continue to impart and imbue us with your good counsel, experience, faith stories, and generosity. Pray and persuade your descendants and others never to forget the land of their birth like old Jacob and Joseph did in the Old Testament. Teach them not to forget the Church that raised them in the faith. May God bless you with more fruitful years and may your children and descendants be gracious to you, Amen”.  He added, remember that Psalm 92 reads “The upright will flourish like the palm tree, will grow like a cedar of Lebanon. planted in the house of Yahweh, they will flourish in the courts of our God.  In old age they will still bear fruit, will remain fresh and green, to proclaim Yahweh’s integrity; my rock, in whom no fault can be found” (Psalm 92: 12-15) So shall it be for you”.

Grandparents are handy in building the society and their contribution is necessary in the growth and development of Nigeria, Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo of the country’s Catholic Diocese of Oyo has said.

The Correspondent of RECOWACERAO NEWS AGENCY, RECONA reported that in his message for the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, which Pope Francis established in January 2021, Bishop Badejo says in communion with the Universal Church, the Catholic Diocese of Oyo “celebrates the gift of all our elderly and grandparents.”

“You are a gift and treasure to us especially in Africa and will always be cherished,” he says in the message shared with the media on Sunday, July 27. 

He added, “We cherish your wisdom, experience, and faith.”

“You are still useful and needed in this troubled nation, the Church, the family, and in the life of your children and grandchildren,” the Catholic Church leader said.

The Nigerian Catholic Bishop urges grandparents not to “sit back and watch” what is happening in the West African nation, but to “continue to impart and imbue us with your good counsel, experience, faith stories and generosity.”

“Please continue to pray and work for peace, family values, and love among all,” the Catholic Bishop of Oyo Diocese, who doubles as the President of the Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS), an entity of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) says.

He adds, “Please Pray and Persuade your descendants and others never to forget the land of their birth like old Jacob and Joseph did in the Old Testament.”

Bishop Badejo encourages grandparents to teach their descendants “not to forget the Church that raised them in the faith.”

“I greet you all and pray for you. Joy, fulfillment, and good health of mind and body shall be yours till the end,” he implores.

The member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication since his appointment in December 2021 further implores, “May God bless you with more fruitful years, and may your children and descendants be gracious to you. Amen.”

Pope Francis established the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly to take place annually on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the feast of the grandparents of Jesus, Saints Anne and Joachim.

This year, the theme of the event is, “Do not cast me off in my old age”, taken from Psalms 71:9.

In his message ahead of the event, the Holy Father urged families around the world to remain close to grandparents and elderly family members, imploring loved ones to spend time with older relatives who may be facing “solitude and abandonment.”

Rev. Fr. George Nwachukwu
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