ROME, September 1, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A plaintive classified ad by an elderly Italian widower, a retired teacher of Latin and Greek, has unexpectedly brought to public attention a fact that pro-life activists have been pointing out for years. Giorgio Angelozzi, 79, placed an ad in a Rome newspaper that said he would be willing to pay the equivalent of 500 Euros a month to any family willing to adopt him as a ‘granddad au pair.’ “I watched an army of people go by,” he sighed. “Now I find myself begging for human contact,” said Mr. Angelozzi who retired after teaching in one of Italy’s most prestigious high schools for forty years.
It seems that the destruction of the traditional family in Italy has been gaining some attention and the image of the sprawling but tight knit extended families so beloved by moviemakers is rapidly becoming a holy relic. The ad caught the attention of the best-selling daily newspaper in Italy, Corriere Della Sera, that pointed out that despite its traditional affinity for the family, Italy has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world at 1.2 per woman of childbearing years. Abortion is available free of charge on what Planned Parenthood International calls ‘social grounds.’ Mr. Angelozzi lives alone as do three million Italian pensioners. 10.5 million Italians above the age of 65 – nearly 20 per cent of the population and that number is expected to rise to 15 million in the next 20 years.
He has one child, a daughter, whom he believes is working as a medical volunteer in Afghanistan. “The last time she phoned me was at Easter,” he said sadly. “But I don’t blame her, she’s following her interests, she didn’t want to have children of her own so she could work full time as a doctor.” Mr. Angelozzi has, he believes, much yet to offer to others. “Literature is my drug,” he said. “I studied with the Jesuits for eight years, and by my third year of high school I had read 3,000 books.” ph