Faith Café on Tuesday the 10th of February

We are delighted to invite you to our February Faith Café, with our special guest Dr. Vittorio Scelzo from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life. In this timely and important Faith Café, Dr. Scelzo will help us reflect on the vital mission of grandparents and the elderly in the Church today, offering insight, encouragement, and hope at a moment of unprecedented change in our world.

As people live longer than ever before, the reality of increased vulnerability, fear, and neglect in old age is becoming one of the most pressing pastoral challenges of our time, making this Faith Café an important opportunity to listen, reflect, and learn how we can better protect and accompany one another.

All are most welcome — please feel free to invite a friend.

Keynote Speaker – Dr. Vittorio Scelzo

Dr. Vittorio Scelzo works at the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, where he is responsible for the pastoral care and ministry for the elderly.

In an unprecedented moment in human history, when the number of older people is rapidly growing and, in many societies, overtaking younger generations, Dr. Scelzo has been deeply instrumental in shaping the Church’s pastoral response through the development of a dedicated ministry for the elderly, playing a key role in the creation of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly within the Dicastery.

Before his work at the Vatican, Dr. Scelzo was closely involved with the Community of Sant’Egidio, where he gained deep pastoral experience accompanying older people, particularly those living with poverty, loneliness, and isolation.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Scelzo coordinated Vatican initiatives in support of the elderly, drawing urgent attention to the suffering caused by isolation and abandonment. He has also played a central role in organising international Vatican gatherings on the pastoral care of the elderly, promoting a vision in which older people are recognised not as a burden, but as a gift and a mission for the Church today.