From Catholic News Service

At concert Pope says music can help build peace

By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Music can help people in their search for the "universal language of love" which unites all peoples and helps them build a more just and peaceful world, Pope Benedict XVI said on the occasion of the first concert held in honour of his pontificate.

At the conclusion of the Oct. 20 concert, which featured pieces by Wolfgang Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner and other classical composers, the Pope said such music "purifies and lifts us up" and "makes us feel the greatness and beauty of God."

"I hope that the harmony of song and music, which knows no social or religious barriers, represents a constant invitation to believers and all people of good will to look together for the universal language of love that enables people to build a world based on justice and solidarity, hope and peace," he said.

The Pope made his address, in German and Italian, at the end of the musical performances of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Athestis choir, and Germany's famed Regensburg boys choir.

Among the more than 7,000 people in attendance in the Vatican's Paul VI hall were some 40 cardinals and 250 bishops, many of whom were in Rome for the Oct. 2-23 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist.

Pope Benedict and his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, who are both music lovers and musicians, were seated near each other in the hall.

One of the concert pieces, titled "Sanctus," was composed by the Pope's brother and was sung by the Regensburg boys choir. Msgr. Ratzinger served as director of the choir, 1964-1994.

The Pope said the concert, which also included compositions by Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, allowed the audience to "experience some of the vastness of the musical creativity that, in the end, has always been fostered by Europe's Christian roots."

Even though composers like Wagner and Verdi "lead us into new ways of experiencing reality, the common foundation of the European spirit, shaped by Christianity, remains ever present and effective," he said.

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