Pope on the Christian Soul of Russia and European Amnesia
(21 May 10 - RV) Pope Benedict was guest of honour at a concert in the Paul the VI
Hall yesterday evening to mark the Days of Russian Spirituality and Culture being
held at the Vatican. The concert, offered by Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All
Russia, included pieces by nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian composers, was
played by the National Orchestra of Russia conducted by Carlo Ponti, with the Synodal
Choir of Moscow and the Horn Capella of St. Petersburg.
At the end of
the concert, which was part of the initiative the Holy Father listened to a message
sent by Patriarch Kirill and was greeted by Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, president
of the Department for External Church Affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow and composer
of one of the pieces played during the concert. The Pope then pronounced a brief address.
"Deep
in these works", he said, "is the soul of the Russian people, and therewith the Christian
faith, both of which find extraordinary expression in divine liturgy and in the liturgical
chants with which it is always accompanied. There is, in fact, a close and fundamental
bond between Russian music and liturgical chant. It is in the liturgy and from the
liturgy that a large part of the artistic creativity of Russian musicians is released
and expressed, giving life to masterpieces which deserve to be better known in the
West".
Such nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian composers as Mussorgsky,
Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov "treasured the rich musical-liturgical
heritage of Russian tradition, re-modelling it and harmonising it with musical themes
and experiences of the West. ... Music, then, anticipates and in some way creates
encounter, dialogue and synergy between East and West, between tradition and modernity.
"It
was of just such a unified and harmonious vision of Europe that the Venerable John
Paul II was thinking when, referring to the image of the 'two lungs' suggested by
Vjaceslav Ivanovic Ivanov, he expressed his hope in a renewed awareness of the continent's
profound and shared cultural and religious roots, without which today's Europe would
be deprived of a soul or, at least, victim of a reduced and partial vision".
"Modern
culture, particularly in Europe, runs the risk of amnesia, of forgetting and thus
abandoning the extraordinary heritage aroused and inspired by Christian faith, which
is the essential framework of the culture of Europe, and not only of Europe. The Christian
roots of the continent are, in fact, made up not only of religious life and the witness
of so many generation of believers, but also of the priceless cultural and artistic
heritage which is the pride and precious resource of the peoples and countries in
which Christian faith, in its various expressions, has entered into dialogue with
culture and the arts".
"Today too these roots are alive and fruitful in
East and West, and can in fact inspire a new humanism, a new season of authentic human
progress in order to respond effectively to the numerous and sometimes crucial challenges
that our Christian communities and societies have to face: first among them that of
secularism, which not only impels us to ignore God and His designs, but ends up by
denying the very dignity of human beings, in view of a society regulated only by selfish
interests".
The Holy Father concluded: "Let us again let Europe breathe
with both lungs, restore a soul not only to believers, but to all peoples of the continent,
promote trust and hope, rooting them in the millennial experience of the Christian
faith. The coherent, generous and courageous witness of believers must not now be
lacking, so that together we may look to our shared future, a future in which the
freedom and dignity of all men and women are recognised as a fundamental value, in
which openness to the Transcendent, the experience of faith, is recognised as an essential
element of the human being".