Grandparents' unique role

Grandparents are taking up the slack more than ever in supporting their families.

As many parents are out of the home working and commuting, grandparents are with the grandchildren more and more.  This can be both a blessing and a chore, hence the new Catholic Grandparents Association which is being established at the Grandparents Annual Pilgrimage to Knock this Sunday (September 13th).

It aims to be a support and resource for grandparents, but above all to give them focus and awareness of the very important role they can play in handing on the faith to their grandchildren.

“I believe to be a grandparent is a calling, a vocation.  I find as a grandparent myself that we get so involved in doing so many things that we forget that the most important thing is to pass on the faith to the grandchildren.  In the days we are living in, the parents do not go to mass, they are tired after the week’s work and that is understandable, so the grandparents are taking the children to mass,” the founder of the Association and Co. Mayo grandmother Catherine Wiley, tells ciNews.

“Although they are taking up the slack in every way I think grandparent’s natural inclination is to hand on the faith and I think the Association will be powerful for them it will help them put a name to their role.  I am sick of apologizing for being a Catholic, people say ‘them days are gone’ and so on, so it is hard to be a grandparent and a Catholic these days.”

She hopes that once the new association is up and running a branch will be formed in every town in Ireland.  There will be a newsletter and seminars for members and above all, they will be able to share their experiences of and tips for caring for their grandchildren.  This is really needed in the modern day situations such as divorce and complicated visitation rights, single parenting, financial difficulties as well as addiction among parents or grandchildren.

In fact grandparents have many reasons to worry about their families so the Association will support them and remind them of the importance of prayer.  Often the grandparents are the only ones in the family who have the faith and they are often asked to pray for family members.

This has become very much part of the Grandparents Annual Pilgrimage as both grandparents and grandchildren write prayers.  There is a special space for these prayers in Knock and these petitions will be taken to the altar at Knock on the annual pilgrimage.

Pope Benedict XVI was alerted to these prayers and wrote one himself in honour of grandparents all over the world.  His blessing marked the feast day of St Joachim and St Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.  As Ireland was the first country to hold a Grandparents Annual Pilgrimage the pope’s prayer was first read in Ireland.  Now there are groups in Germany, America and elsewhere and the prayer is to be translated and sent around the world.     

An attendance of over 10,000 is expected to congregate in Knock Shrine on Sunday, for the official launch of the Association, and the Chief Celebrant and Homilist will be the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady.

The establishment of the Association – thought to be the first of its kind anywhere in the Catholic Church – comes on the heels of two National Grandparents Pilgrimages to Knock in 2007 and 2008.  Over 15,000 people have attended these two pilgrimages, prompting the founder, Catherine Wiley, to set up the association.

If you want to set up, or get involved in, a local grandparents group call Catherine on mobile: 087 288 2008.

by Anne Marie Foley