Pope Francis has called for spiritual and physical accompaniment to the elderly and those who are sick.

During his weekly audience, the Pope assured the elderly were a "symbol of wisdom", that "palliative care" should not be confused with "assisted suicide" and that "therapeutic cruelty is immoral".

"We cannot avoid death, and because of that, after having done everything humanly possible to care for the ill person, therapeutic cruelty is immoral.

"To the quality of death itself, pain, suffering. In fact, we should be grateful for all the help that medicine is striving to give, so that through so-called 'palliative care', everyone who is preparing to live the last stretch of their life's journey can do so in the most human way possible".