Liturgical music can teach value of unity in diversity, pope says June 19, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Feature, News, Vatican, World News VATICAN CITY — The liturgical music tradition of polyphony with its blend of melodies and harmonies should lift people’s spirits as it subtly transmits a message about diversity and unity, Pope Leo XIV said. In the frescoed Sala Regia of the Apostolic Palace June 18, the pope helped celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a composer whose Mass settings are still a staple of Vatican liturgies. During the evening event, the Vatican unveiled a postage stamp issued in Palestrina’s honor, and the choir of the Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci Foundation sang selections of Palestrina’s “Missa Papae Marcelli” and gave Pope Leo a CD of the Mass setting. Polyphony “is a musical form full of meaning for prayer and for the Christian life,” Pope Leo said. First, “it is inspired by the sacred text, which it sets out to ‘clothe with suitable melody’ so that it may better reach ‘the intelligence of the faithful,'” he said, quoting a document from St. Pius X on sacred music. “What is more, it accomplishes this purpose by entrusting the words to several voices, each repeating them in its own, original way with varied and complementary melodic and harmonic movements,” the pope said. “Finally,” he said, “it harmonizes the whole by the skill with which the composer develops and interweaves the melodies, respecting the rules of counterpoint, making them echo each other, sometimes even creating dissonances, which then find resolution in new chords.” “The effect of this dynamic unity in diversity — a metaphor for our common journey of faith under the guidance of the Holy Spirit — is to help the listener enter ever more deeply into the mystery expressed by the words, responding where appropriate,” he said. Read More Vatican News Historian reflects on Michelangelo’s ‘Last Judgement’ with Sistine Chapel restoration underway Pope Leo XIV meets with authors of book on Latin Mass in U.S. Pope Leo XIV prays for leaders to ‘abandon projects of death’ in peace prayer video Vatican theological commission warns of replacing God with ‘a world governed by machines’ Cardinal Parolin questions whether missiles, bombs are solution to Iranian people’s aspirations Church is holy by Christ’s presence, not human perfection, pope says Copyright © 2025 OSV News Print
