Concert of Russian Sacred Music In Vatican

21/5/2010

Translated Using Google Translate Service

May 20, 2010 in the hall audiences behalf of Paul VI at the Vatican held a concert of Russian sacred music. The concert was attended by Pope Benedict XVI, the members of the College of Cardinals, the diplomatic corps to the Holy See, many guests from around the world.

Among those present were the Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov Cyril, Archbishop of Sergiev Posad Theognost many pilgrims from the Russian Orthodox Church, arrived in Rome to participate in this concert. Total in the hall were more than seven thousand people.

Organized by the Department for External Church Relations, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Council for Culture with the participation of the Foundation of St. Gregory the Theologian.

Before the concert, the metropolitan Metropolitan Hilarion Volokolamsky read a congratulatory message to His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill. Then Bishop Hilarion addressed to the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Italian.

In his welcoming remarks, Chairman of the DECR noted:

“Today’s concert is organized in the context of the cultural ties that exist between the Roman Catholic Church and the Moscow Patriarchate. The relations between our Churches today are developing and I hope will develop in all directions and in the future, covering all aspects of church life. I am convinced: Orthodox and Catholics to work together, should not wait for the moment will disappear all the theological differences between us. We can not have illusions that this will happen quickly. However, we must now act not as rivals but as allies, especially in Europe.

Your Holiness, we support your call for a new evangelization of Europe. However, we believe that no church, even so large and strong, as Roman Catholic, is not able to implement it alone. We should be together. We have a common field of missionary work – today’s de-Christianize Europe, having lost their religious, moral and cultural roots.

Faced with secularization, consumer ideology, moral relativism but together we, the Orthodox and Catholics, we can reveal our contemporaries Christian humanism, and moral values of family, marital fidelity, the value of life itself, since its conception until its natural end, and by doing so, we not only help the Europeans to gain a spiritual and moral meaning of their lives, but also help our continent, which is currently experiencing a very serious crisis of identity, regain their spiritual and cultural roots. ”

Then, in the performance of the Russian National Orchestra, the Moscow Synodal Choir and Horn Choir of St. Petersburg were filled with works of Rimsky-Korsakov, S. Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and other Russian composers. At the end of the concert sounded symphony for chorus and orchestra “Song of ascents, written by Metropolitan Hilarion.
Closing gala evening, Pope Benedict XVI has appealed to Metropolitan Hilarion and other guests of the concert with the response welcoming speech, in which, inter alia, said:

“First of all, I am deeply grateful to His Holiness Patriarch Cyril. I heartily thank also the Metropolitan Hilarion for the words of welcome for his tireless work in the field of inter-Christian relations and musical creations, which today we can appreciate in dignity. However, it welcomed the delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate, distinguished representatives of the diplomatic corps, all the brothers and sisters, and, above all, the Russians taking part in today’s celebration.

DECR Communication Service
Photo by Vladimir Khodakov

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