It's beautiful to be old, says Pope

The Pope said yesterday (Monday) that it was "beautiful to be old" but acknowledged that many elderly people were suffering as a result of the global economic crisis.

"The quality of a society, I'd say of a civilisation, is judged by how well it treats its elderly," the 85-year-old pontiff said during the visit to an old people's home run by the Saint Egidio Community, a Catholic charity, in Rome.

Age brought challenges and difficulties with which he himself was familiar. "I know well the difficulties, the problems and the limits of this age, and I know that these difficulties are aggravated for many people by the economic crisis," he said.

"But I want to say to you with profound conviction - it is beautiful to be old!"

After chatting with residents and their carers, he said he had been "rejuvenated and strengthened" by the experience.

He said the elderly still had a great deal to offer society despite their physical limitations. "Often society, driven by the logic of efficiency and profit, does not embrace elderly people as a gift to appreciate and value, but rejects them, considering them useless and unproductive," the Pope said.

Instead they should be esteemed for their wisdom and experience of life.

Marco Impagliazzo, the president of the Saint Egidio Community, said the number of old people who were "sad, forgotten, lonely and impoverished" was on the increase, both on the "streets of Rome and in many European cities".