For the Feast of Saint Anne: Honouring Grandparents and the Elderly in Catholic Tradition -- and the Catholicization of the African Heritage

Honouring Grandparents and the Elderly in Catholic Tradition:

A Christianised Ganda Cultural Reading

by Michael Kakooza

for Rorate Cæli

Introduction

In 2021, Pope Francis instituted the fourth Sunday of July as the annual World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly in the reformed Roman calendar.  This year, the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly will fall on 27 July 2025.

In the message he issued for the first World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, the pope stated:

 

Think about it: what is our vocation today, at our age? To preserve our roots, to pass on the faith to the young and to care for the little ones. Never forget this.

It makes no difference how old you are, whether you still work or not, whether you are alone or have a family, whether you became a grandmother or grandfather at a young age or later, whether you are still independent or need assistance. Because there is no retirement age from the work of proclaiming the Gospel and handing down traditions to your grandchildren. … The future of the world depends on this covenant between young and old. … Keeping memory alive is a true mission for every elderly person: keeping memory alive and sharing it with others.

In the following discussion, I wish to contribute to broadening our appreciation of the concepts of grandparents and the elderly within the context of Catholic Tradition, drawing from the wisdom of my own cultural background as a Ugandan Catholic who is attached to the Traditional Latin liturgical heritage. 

The amorphous “Roman rite” and the authentic Roman Rite: A keen analysis by Michael Charlier

Not the Rite of Zaire...

Liturgical No-Man’s Land or Rite Church

Sunday’s Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica in the “Rite of Zaire” has raised questions (e.g., here) about the relationship of this “rite” to the Novus Ordo liturgy, and whether this contradicts Pope Francis’s claim that the liturgy prescribed in the Missal of Paul VI is the only lex orandi of the Latin Rite Catholic Church.

Further thoughts on “inculturation”: Why ignore the liturgy that sustained the evangelization of the entire globe?

Yesterday's article naturally raises many questions. With thanks again to Monika Rheinschmitt of Pro Missa Tridentina, I would like to share some further thoughts about the contrast between the Zairean "use" of the Roman Rite (?) and the traditional rite that once nourished Catholics in every country and culture -- and still does, wherever it gains a new foothold.