Pope says music can bring hope to wounded world

Published: 2008-04-25

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Music can bring hope to a wounded humanity, Pope Benedict XVI said. At the end of an evening concert held in his honor April 24 to mark the third anniversary of the start of his pontificate, Pope Benedict said there is "a mysterious and deep kinship between music and hope, between song and eternal life." The musical arts, therefore, have enormous spiritual value and are called to "instill hope in the human spirit so scarred and at times wounded by earthly life," he said. Milan's Giuseppe Verdi symphony orchestra and chorus performed works by Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven and Luciano Berio in the Vatican's Paul VI hall to a large audience that included the pope's elder brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger. Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano, who sat next to the pope during the performance, offered the concert to the pope as a gift. Pope Benedict told the audience the joy music and song bring is "a constant invitation to the faithful and people of good will to dedicate themselves to offer humanity a future rich with hope."

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