JPIC Corner October 2009

Wednesday, 14 October 2009 00:00

Coordinator’s Note
Brother Warren Perrotto, MSC
JPIC Coordinator
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart

One evening this past summer, the TV show, America’s Got Talent, featured a 75 year old woman telling jokes. They were quite funny. All three judges voted “yes” for her to move on to Las Vegas for the future tryouts. One judge noted that is an inspiration for all us to never give up pursuing our dreams. It was good to see her receive a standing ovation from the audience composed of mostly young persons. They accepted her well.

This event reminded me of when I was in Cuernavaca, Mexico. On Thursday evenings, my friends and I would go to a Disco. Here it was great to see a mixture of young and old dancing together and talking with each other. There was no discrimination between the two. Both were welcomed.

In my Italian heritage, I remember how much the young were able to be around the elder members of the family. Care was also given to our elder members. When my grandfather died, my aunt took her mother into her home. Grandma still participated in all the events and activities of family life, including cooking her great meals. In her latter days of serious illness, each of her sons took turns spending the night at my aunt’s house helping her care for their mother. My grandmother died peacefully in her daughter’s home. We see this same practice within other cultures as well.

While these are positive experiences, we nevertheless have to face the reality of our elderly in our society today. Pope John Paul II stated,

If we stop to consider the current situation, we see that among some peoples old age is esteemed and valued, while among others this is much less the case, due to a mentality which gives priority to immediate human usefulness and productivity. Such an attitude frequently leads to contempt for the later years of life, while older people themselves are led to wonder whether their lives are still worthwhile. ¹

In this issue, we will take a look at our elderly population in the United States, their present hopes, dreams and struggles.

1. Letter to the Elderly, October 1, 1999, 9.

JPIC Corner October 2009

Did You Know?

By 2030, 1 in 5 Americans will be age 65 or older

Recent research is proving several myths about congition to be incorrect - notably, the beliefs that agin is a time of irreversible mental decline and that dementia is universal and inevitable

Approximately 33 million, or 15% of all U.S. adults, admit that they were a victim of domestic violence

Current estimates indicate that between 1 and 2 million Americans over the age of 65 have been "injured, exploited or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for care or protection"