The Council of the Laity also recalled that Pope John Paul II had addressed older people when he received 8,000 of them in audience March 23, 1984: “Do not be surprised by the temptation of interior solitude. Notwithstanding the complexity of your problems … and the forces which gradually wear you down, and despite the inadequacies of social organizations, the delays of official legislation and a selfish society's failure to understand, you are not and must not consider yourselves to be on the margins of the life of the Church, passive elements in a world in excessive motion, but active subjects of a period in human existence which is rich in spirituality and humanity. You still have a mission to fulfill and a contribution to make.”