Four years ago I watched Ennio Morricone majestically conduct an orchestra playing the world-famous music he had composed for The Mission. Memories of that concert in the Vatican came flooding back when I heard on Monday that Morricone had died in Rome at the age of 91. It struck me as a moment that brought together various strands of Pope Francis’ pontificate.

The 12 November 2016 event was a musical extravaganza for the socially excluded which Francis had wanted to be “with the poor and for the poor”. That evening the homeless were treated as guests of honour, taking their seats in the front rows of the Paul VI Hall ahead of diplomats and other VIPs. Sitting in the auditorium behind them with my then seven-year-old son (who later took up playing the oboe), it was a privilege to witness the then 88-year-old maestro conduct the haunting “Gabriel’s Oboe”, the main theme of the movie, along with the premiere of a new composition, “God, One of Us”.

Morricone’s atmospheric score for Roland Joffé’s Oscar-winning film evokes the missionary work in Latin America of the Pope’s Jesuit order, opposed by a powerful European cardinal who wanted to shut down their mission to the indigenous Guarani people. They lost the battle. The contrast with today – when we have a Jesuit Pope determined to renew the Church’s missionary efforts in the Amazon region – is poignant.