Germany: new aids from the German Church on “old age, care and dying at home”

In the run-up to this year’s Family Sunday, on December 26th, the German Bishops’ Conference (Dbk) has published new online work aids. The subject is “old age, care and dying at home” and provides tips on how to approach the last stage of life in marriage and at home. “A long life is full of encounters, experiences and stories. Many life experiences are put together that have to be handed down to the next generations”, the president of the Marriage and Family Committee of Dbk, mgr. Heiner Koch, archbishop of Berlin, writes in the foreword. The aids also look at the mandate of the pastoral service for old people, the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, the pastoral service for the families of people affected by dementia, as well as theological matters and reflections about dying. Prayers, passages from the Bible and meditation texts lead such reflections. The text takes inspiration from Pope Francis’s Post-Synod Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia of 2016.
Valentina Bombelli