On Saturday morning, Pope Francis received the artists who will participate tonight in the Christmas Concert, to encourage them to transmit “peace and hope” to today’s world and to new generations.
The meeting with about two hundred promoters and artists of the 2024 Christmas Concert took place in the Clementina Room of the Apostolic Palace.
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The concert is organized by the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation – Culture for Education organization of Don Bosco Missions. The money raised will be used to support educational and social projects of Salesian missionaries around the world.
“Peace and hope. These are the two ‘vocal lines’ of the song that I encourage you to take up and make heard in the streets of the world today, to transmit it to future generations. “There are many people who hope to receive this gift from you,” said the Pope. in his speech.
Referring to peace, the Pontiff said that it is moving to think “that when Jesus was born in the silence of the night, a hymn of peace, sung by ‘a multitude of the heavenly host’, suddenly filled the heavens with joy. That’s how it was.”
“Music speaks directly to the human heart in a unique way; “It has an extraordinary capacity to create unity and promote communion,” said Pope Francis. For this reason, he encouraged artists to be “angels of peace” investing their talent, art and life as best they can and wherever they are, “in promoting that culture of fraternity and reconciliation that our world needs today more than ever.” .
Next, the Holy Father indicated that Christmas remembers that “hope is, above all, a gift from God” and that it is “founded on faith and nourished by charity.”
“On the one hand, hope must sink its roots in the fertile soil of communion with the Lord, but it must also grow and bear fruit through concrete options inspired by love, thus filling the present with meaning and opening new horizons towards the future,” he noted.
“Friends, the world and the Church need your talents, your creative ideals, they need your generosity and your passion for justice and fraternity. With this in mind, I ask the Lord to shower his blessings on you and your loved ones. I wish you the best for this Concert and a Merry Christmas. And I ask you please not to forget to pray for me,” concluded Pope Francis.
Eduardo Berdejo
Professional in Social Communication from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru, I have more than 20 years of experience in Catholic digital journalism. As part of ACI Prensa I have been sent to cover Pope Francis’ trips to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, in addition to the Synodality Synod in the Vatican in 2023.