In an era obsessed with youth and technology, older people are often reduced to stereotypes of dependency. Yet many live active, rich lives, defying the idea that ageing is solely decline. Diversity defines the experience of growing old.

Laudato Si’ insists that human and natural environments affect the vulnerable most severely. The common good, Francis teaches, demands solidarity and countering systems that treat people as expendable in global markets.

The world’s poorest are being asked to bear the cost of a system rigged against them. With declining development aid and rising debt repayments, hope is fading fast for millions whose lives are treated as disposable.

Safeguards promised in Canada’s assisted dying law are eroding. Vulnerable people request assisted death and are often driven by loneliness, guilt, and loss of meaning—compromising true freedom of choice. The inclusion of psychiatric illness by 2027 intensifies concern.

Catholic social teaching insists that moral clarity isn’t enough. It demands concrete action—against poverty, ignorance, and inequality. For Leo XIV, the Church’s voice must not echo platitudes but challenge broken systems that steal childhoods and sacrifice the vulnerable.