NEW YORK: Pope Francis has condemned the practice of abandoning the elderly in institutions as a form of “hidden euthanasia”.
He met 100 elderly people and grandparents gathered for a special Mass in Rome and affirmed the importance of taking care of the growing number of older people around the globe.
He warned of a “poisonous” culture in which elderly people are effectively abandoned in institutions, where they may suffer physical neglect or loneliness.
The Pope recognized that residential homes for older people were necessary for some of those that have no family to care for them. But, he said, they must truly be “homes, not prisons”, and they must truly serve the interests of older people…