Pope Francis is presented with a birthday cake aboard the papal plane on the return from his trip to Corsica on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, Dec 17, 2024 / 09:20 am (CNA).

Pope Francis, who celebrates his 88th birthday today, has become one of the oldest-serving popes in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history.

Having instituted the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly in 2019, the Holy Father is keeping true to his inaugural message dedicated to older Catholics: “There is no retirement age from the work of proclaiming the Gospel.”  

Just this past Sunday, Dec. 15, he completed his 47th apostolic journey to the French region of Corsica to spend a full day with the Catholic faithful and take part in their cultural and pious traditions.

In the wake of the opening of the Jubilee Year of Hope on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, the pope has not put a pause in his work schedule.

In December alone, Pope Francis has met with country leaders, dicastery prefects, and even smaller delegations of Catholic communities who have come to visit him in the Vatican.   

According to Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, the pope makes the effort to call the Holy Family Church in Gaza every evening and has become “the grandfather for the children” of the parish who eagerly await his 7 p.m. call.    

“Think about it: What is our vocation today, at our age?” the pope asked grandparents and elderly in his 2019 message for the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly. 

The answer? “To preserve our roots, to pass on the faith to the young, and to care for the little ones. Never forget this.”

Since the early days of his pontificate the Holy Father has often highlighted the need to connect the old and the young through “intergenerational dialogue” in order to advance peace within families, the Church, and wider society.

Just months after his papal election, Pope Francis embarked upon one of his first apostolic journeys to take part in the 2013 World Youth Day festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and asked the millions of young pilgrims to thank their grandparents “for the ongoing witness of their wisdom.”

“How important grandparents are for family life, for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society!” he said during his Angelus address on the July 26 feast day of Sts. Joachim and Anne.

“How important it is to have intergenerational exchanges and dialogue, especially within the context of the family,” he added.

Throughout his pontificate, the Holy Father has never shied away from sharing candid stories and memories from his own childhood in his homilies and public audiences. 

Even his third and latest encyclical Dilexit Nos includes seeds of practical faith and wisdom learned from his grandmother who tells him that lies — just like the carnival pastries whose Spanish name, “mentiras,” means the same thing — “look big but are empty inside.”

While continuing to draw inspiration from his grandparents to guide the world’s approximately 1.4 billion Catholics, Pope Francis also expressed his respect and gratitude for having his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI — whom in 2014 he affectionately called the wise “grandfather of grandfathers” — live at home with him in the Vatican for many years.    

“I have said many times that it gives me great pleasure that he lives here in the Vatican, because it is like having a wise grandfather at home,” he said at the time. “Thank you!"