Benedict XVI says Christian music tradition is unique

IN ONE of his rare speeches since he retired as pope two years ago, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said that classical music for him can be an “encounter with the divine”.

Benedict XVI was speaking at the Castel Gandolfo papal summer retreat, where he first stayed after resigning in February 2013, citing the frailty of age.

The Pope Emeritus was receiving honorary doctorates from the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow and the Krakow Academy of Music for his promotion of respect for the sacred music traditions in the Church.

“It remains indelibly impressed in my memory how, for example, as soon as the first notes resounded from Mozart’s Coronation Mass, the heavens practically opened and you experienced, very deeply, the Lord's presence,” the 88-year-old Benedict said. He recalled the “dramatic tension” after the Second Vatican Council between those who thought large choral works and orchestrated Masses no longer had a place in the liturgy and should only be performed in concert halls, and those who feared the cultural impoverishment this would lead to.

“There is great literature, great architecture, great art and great sculpture in the diverse cultures and religious fields. And there is music everywhere. But you will not find music of the magnitude of that which the Christian world brought forth – the music of Palestrina, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner – in any other cultural region,” Benedict said. “This music is unique. It must not disappear from the liturgy.” Bestowing the honours was Krakow Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, St John Paul II’s long-time aide who was made a cardinal by Benedict.