Pope Points to Music as Harmony of East and West

(May 22, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI warmly thanked Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill for a concert celebrating the Pontiff's April birthday and anniversary of election. Beyond his words of gratitude to the Orthodox leader, the Holy Father used the occasion to promote harmony between East and West, particularly in light of Europe's growing distance from its Christian roots. The concert Thursday featured some of the great works of 19th and 20th century Russian composers. It closed with "Song of the Ascension," a symphony composed by a leading prelate in the Russian Orthodox Church: Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department of External Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Pontiff reflected that the concert opened a window to the "soul of the Russian people and with it the Christian faith, which find an extraordinary expression precisely in the divine liturgy and the liturgical singing that always accompanies it." Pope Benedict XVI, himself an accomplished musician, noted the "profound original bond" between Russian music and liturgical singing. "In the liturgy and from the liturgy is unleashed and begins to a great extent the artistic creativity of Russian musicians to create masterpieces that merit being better known in the Western world," he said. Drawing a deeper meaning from the concert, the Bishop of Rome affirmed that in music there is already a certain fulfilment of the "encounter, the dialogue, the synergy between East and West, as well as between tradition and modernity." The Pope affirmed that these roots are still alive in East and West and "must inspire a new humanism, a new season of authentic human progress.