Vatican City, Oct 2, 2010 / 22:02 pm
Reflecting on the content of an orchestral and choral program, Pope Benedict said that one particular piece gave voice to the witness of faith through martyrdom. And this, he explained, represents the greatest masterpiece of all, an act of authentic love.
A concert was offered for the Pope at the Vatican on Friday evening at Paul VI Hall by Italian energy company ENI, which led restoration efforts to renew the facade of St. Peter's Basilica for the Jubilee Year in 2000. More recently, they have been leading similar restoration efforts for the colonnade of St. Peter's Square.
The National Academy of St. Cecilia's orchestra and choir performed works by Ludwig von Beethoven, Franz Josef Haydn and Arvo Pärt, a modern Estonian composer of sacred music, during the program. Concluding the evening, the Holy Father pointed out some of the differences between the composers' works.
The pieces by two former composers represent art's universal dimension, "a way to conceive of man in his place in the world," he observed, while Arvo Pärt's piece showed another reality "not of the natural world." Pärt's work, "Cecilia, Roman virgin," said the Holy Father, "gives voice to the witness of the faith in Christ, which in a word says 'martyrdom'."