My colleagues over at Cantate Deo have posted an excerpt from Pope Benedict’s address after a concert of local choirs he attended while on vacation in the Valle d’Aosta, which I reproduce in part here:
“Training in singing, in singing in choir, is not only an exercise of the external hearing and voice; it is also an education of interior hearing, the hearing of the heart, an exercise and a education in life and peace,” the Holy Father said in his improvised remarks.
“Singing together in choir and with other choirs together, demands attention to the other, attention to the composer, attention to the conductor, attention to this totality that we call music and culture. And,” he added, “in this way singing in choir is a training in life, a training in peace, a walking together.”
Like my colleagues, I love the Pope. :)