Angelus News | March 22, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 6

OUR
FINAL
TEST
Smaller families,
longer lives:
Will Catholics step
up to face the ‘new
normal’ awaiting
tomorrow’s seniors?
BY PATRICK T. BROWN
when your hair is gray, I
will carry you,” the prophet
“Even
Isaiah tells us — no small
comfort to the ever-growing slice of
America that is in or nearing their silver
years. With birthrates declining and life
expectancy rising, our nation is the oldest
it’s ever been. But are we ready for
the challenges that are bound to come?
Many Catholics — and indeed,
Christians of various stripes — pray
that the “life of every human person, from conception to
natural death, might be enshrined and protected in our laws.”
Decades and dollars have sustained the advocacy around
protecting the unborn child, a mission even more critical in
these tumultuous years after the Dobbs decision. Yet save for
a few high-profile cases — Terri Schiavo in the mid-2000s,
or headlines about abuses in Canada’s euthanasia program
— there has been less concerted effort around building up
respect for the elderly facing their final years.
That will need to change.
The Baby Boomer generation — those born between
1946 and 1964 who for so long have directed the course of
American culture and society — are now in their 60s and
70s. The way they face the end of life, and the choices we opt
to prioritize or make available, will set the script for how we
treat death, the labor of caretaking, and the value of human
dignity into the future.
Advances in medicine and personal health means that
Americans are living longer. This is a good thing. But as more
and more seniors reach the age of needing a little assistance
A volunteer holds the hand
of a dying 98-year-old
woman at a senior living
center. | CNS/COURTESY
MICHAELA GALLAGHER
to handle the responsibilities of daily living, our nation could
run into a problem of simple math: more seniors needing
care than there are bodies to care for them.
To put this into context, at the turn of the millennium, those
in the 60s and 70s made up 12.9% of the U.S. population.
Today, they represent nearly one-fifth (19.4%) of all Americans,
and declining birthrates means this shift will continue.
The future of aging in America — with fewer younger
workers providing for a growing number of seniors — will put
increasing strain on our care infrastructure, and the programs
and resources available to those needing to care for a loved
one as they slow down.
Many seniors live healthy and active lives through much of
their retirement years. But Father Time remains unbeaten.
Eventually, our bodies and minds start to break down as we
age — and with more seniors living longer, the need to compensate
for those frailties becomes more acute. The blessing
of having Grandma or Papa for more years is accompanied
by an obligation to care for them in their less-active, less-agile
years. While old age itself is not an illness, visiting an elderly
22 • ANGELUS • March 22, 2024