Honoring Thy Parents: Analyzing Students’ Perspectives of Caring for their Aging Parents using Amoris Laetitia

Abstract

The existence of elderly care facilities in the country reflects a reality about the perspective of children regarding the care of their aging parents. In modern society, some old people who can no longer provide for their families, or for themselves, are seen as burdens and additional mouths to feed. Later on in their lives, they are just sent in elderly care facilities by their children who cannot take care of them. In line with this pressing concern, this qualitative research will implore semi-structured interviews in order to discover students’ understanding of the fourth commandment and their perspective about caring for their aging parents. The data collected will be analyzed using the apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia”, supported by other catholic documents that deal with care for the elderly. This will be done in order to see how the Church addresses this issue concerning its members. Perhaps through the findings of this research, the Church may be able to help in addressing such concern.