Pope Francis & Sacred Music
- Patrick McGuire
- May 1
- 7 min read
Updated: May 7
As we finish out the Novendiali for Pope Francis, I thought it might be nice to look back on what he had to say about music and liturgy throughout his pontificate. As with many areas of his teaching and writings, I think Pope Francis embodied the 'Catholic both and’ quite well with regard to sacred music. About a week ago I heard a reflection about Pope Francis that lovingly characterized him as a ‘spiritual director who forgot he was the pope.’ He was a great spiritual father to us all. His pontificate is filled with examples of a nurturing and shepherding love that always sought to embody the person of Jesus Christ. So, how did that show in his thoughts about sacred music? Here is an assortment of quotes I collected from some of his audiences and writings:
“Singing, playing, composing, directing and making music in the Church are among the most beautiful things for the glory of God. It is a privilege, a gift from God to express the art of music and to assist participation in the divine mysteries. Beautiful and good music is a privileged tool for approaching the transcendent, and often helps to understand a message even those who are distracted.”
"In this regard, a two-fold mission emerges which the Church is called to follow, especially through those who in various ways work in this area. On the one hand it calls for safeguarding and enhancing the rich and manifold patrimony inherited from the past, balancing it with the present and avoiding the risk of a nostalgic or “archaeological” outlook. On the other hand, it is necessary to ensure that sacred music and liturgical chant be fully “inculturated” in the artistic and musical language of the current time; namely, that they are able to incarnate and translate the Word of God into song, sound and harmony capable of making the hearts of our contemporaries resonate, also creating an appropriate emotional climate which disposes people to faith and stirs openness and full participation in the mystery being celebrated.”
Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the International Federation of Pueri Cantores | December 30, 2023
“Singing is a school of humility, because the singer, even in solo parts, is always part of a choir, and each is at the service of all, even the director. Your singing, is all the more humble because it is at the service of God: while it helps others to encounter the Lord, it is also able to step aside at the right moment, to leave room for silence, so that everyone can listen quietly to the words that only Jesus wants to say to each one of us. Singers who try to draw attention to themselves, or to stand out from others, are not good singers; indeed, they often risk spoiling everyone’s work, and this can be heard immediately. So, do not try to stand out, seek to sing as one, with the unity that comes from humility; in this way your singing can express true friendship, with God and with one another.”
“I think, in particular, of the many traditions in our communities scattered throughout the world, which bring out the forms most rooted in popular culture, and which also become genuine prayer. That popular piety which knows how to pray creatively, which knows how to sing creatively; that popular piety which, as an Italian bishop said, is the ‘immune system’ of the Church. And song carries this piety forward. Through this music and song, voice is also given to prayer and in this way an international choir is formed, where in unison all the praise and glory of the Father’s people rise up to him.”
Desiderio desideravi
I want to make special mention of Pope Francis' Apostolic Letter Desiderio desideravi. I hope that with time, we will come to look back on this writing of Pope Francis as a key document that unlocked the modern renewal of the liturgy to its fullest potential. I will only feature a couple of paragraphs here, the full document gives a wonderful reflection on liturgy and worship that will serve best to contextualize what I have excerpted below:
22. The continual rediscovery of the beauty of the Liturgy is not the search for a ritual aesthetic which is content by only a careful exterior observance of a rite or is satisfied by a scrupulous observance of the rubrics. Obviously, what I am saying here does not wish in any way to approve the opposite attitude, which confuses simplicity with a careless banality, or what is essential with an ignorant superficiality, or the concreteness of ritual action with an exasperating practical functionalism.
23. Let us be clear here: every aspect of the celebration must be carefully tended to (space, time, gestures, words, objects, vestments, song, music…) and every rubric must be observed. Such attention would be enough to prevent robbing from the assembly what is owed to it; namely, the paschal mystery celebrated according to the ritual that the Church sets down. But even if the quality and the proper action of the celebration were guaranteed, that would not be enough to make our participation full.
48 …The ars celebrandi cannot be reduced to only a rubrical mechanism, much less should it be thought of as imaginative — sometimes wild — creativity without rules. The rite is in itself a norm, and the norm is never an end in itself, but it is always at the service of a higher reality that it means to protect.
49. As in any art, the ars celebrandi requires different kinds of knowledge. First of all, it requires an understanding of the dynamism that unfolds through the Liturgy. The action of the celebration is the place in which, by means of memorial, the Paschal Mystery is made present so that the baptized, through their participation, can experience it in their own lives. Without this understanding, the celebration easily falls into a preoccupation with the exterior (more or less refined) or into a concern only for rubrics (more or less rigid).
Then, it is necessary to know how the Holy Spirit acts in every celebration. The art of celebrating must be in harmony with the action of the Spirit. Only in this way will it be free from the subjectivisms that are the fruit of individual tastes dominating. Only in this way will it be free from the invasion of cultural elements that are taken on without discernment and that have nothing to do with a correct understanding of inculturation.
Finally, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of symbolic language, its particular nature, its efficacy.
50. From these brief indications it should be clear that the art of celebration is not something that can be improvised. Like every art, it requires consistent application. For an artisan, technique is enough. But for an artist, in addition to technical knowledge, there has also to be inspiration, which is a positive form of possession. The true artist does not possess an art but rather is possessed by it. One does not learn the art of celebrating by frequenting a course in public speaking or in persuasive techniques of communication. (I am not judging intentions, just observing effects.) Every tool can be useful, but it must be at the service of the nature of the Liturgy and the action of the Holy Spirit. A diligent dedication to the celebration is required, allowing the celebration itself to convey to us its art. Guardini writes: “We must understand how deeply we remain entrenched in individualism and subjectivism, how unaccustomed we have become to the demands of the ‘great’, and how small the parameters of our religious living are. We must regain the sense for the ‘great’ style of praying, the will towards the existential in prayer too. The way to achieve this, though, is through discipline, through giving up weak sentimentality; through serious work, carried out in obedience to the Church, on our religious being and acting.” [15] This is how the art of celebrating is learned.
51. Speaking of this theme we are inclined to think of it only in regards to ordained ministers carrying out the service of presiding. But in fact this is an attitude that all the baptized are called to live. I think of all the gestures and words that belong to the assembly: gathering, careful walking in procession, being seated, standing, kneeling, singing, being in silence, acclamations, looking, listening. There are many ways in which the assembly, as one body, (Ne 8:1) participates in the celebration. Everybody doing together the same gesture, everyone speaking together in one voice — this transmits to each individual the energy of the entire assembly. It is a uniformity that not only does not deaden but, on the contrary, educates individual believers to discover the authentic uniqueness of their personalities not in individualistic attitudes but in the awareness of being one body. It is not a question of following a book of liturgical etiquette. It is, rather, a “discipline,” — in the way that Guardini referred to — which, if observed authentically forms us. These are gestures and words that place order within our interior world making us live certain feelings, attitudes, behaviours. They are not the explanation of an ideal that we seek to let inspire us, but they are instead an action that engages the body in its entirety, that is to say, in its being a unity of body and soul.
Again, I highly encourage a full reading of this document, the excerpts provided here only give part of the picture. I hope what I have drawn out in this blog post highlights the wisdom and insightful teaching of Pope Francis.
These final days of mourning for Pope Francis are a good opportunity to reflect on him as a person. Take some time to read what he wrote, and to discover who he was by what he said. Pray for his wisdom to be seen in its goodness by all the faithful. His legacy will be embedded in the history of the church and the world for years to come. In almost every single public address I have read from him, he closes by asking everyone to pray for him. Let us do that as well now, for the repose of his soul, and for all the faithful departed.
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