Some 200 Catholic and Hindu youth sing together in sacred music festival
by Nirmala Carvalho
Choirs from eight parishes in the Mumbai Archdiocese took part in the event, which is at its eight edition. For the president of the International Federation of Pueri Cantores, sacred music can be a tool of evangelisation in India.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – St Peter’s Church, in Bandra, Mumbai, hosted the eighth annual Festival of Sacred Music over the weekend, showcasing about 200 singers in several youth choirs from eight different parishes in Mumbai. The groups include the Gleehive and Cadenza Kantori as well as a 71-member choir from St Helena Parish in Pune, half of whom are Hindus. The goal of the festival is to promote interest in sacred music in the public.
Assembled together, the 200 singers opened with the Advent Antiphon ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’ followed by JS Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’. Dressed for the occasion, each choir sang two sacred carols.
Mgr Robert Tyrala, president of the International Federation Pueri Cantores, was a special guest at the event. He praised the young singers for their high level of performance. “Music transcends culture and religion and raises mind and heart to the divine,” he said.
Pueri Cantores is an organisation that seeks to educate young people through Christian values and sacred music. In Asia, it is present in Japan, Sri Lanka and South Korea.
“In India, sacred music is a means of evangelisation for the Catholic Church,” Mgr Tyrala said. “I look at these boys and girls and I see the future of the Church. Whilst they sing, I see joy in their eyes because the grace of God arrives to them. It is a very good experience.”
The bishop is in Asia to attend a meeting on “The Church in Asia, the role of religious movements”.
“I experienced the inner life of the Asian Church,” he explained. In this continent, “Catholics are a minority and I think that there is a great need for evangelisation through activities like those of Pueri Cantores. Sacred music can reach man and play a special role in the evangelical mission.”
For this reason, he is not surprised to see young Hindus among the choristers. “Our motto,” he said, “is ‘We are tools of Your Peace.”
In india as elsewhere, some non-Christians might find in music a moment of reflection, and an answer to something important. Speaking to us in 1999, John Paul II called us “messengers of beauty, faith and love”. (NC)
Assembled together, the 200 singers opened with the Advent Antiphon ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’ followed by JS Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’. Dressed for the occasion, each choir sang two sacred carols.
Mgr Robert Tyrala, president of the International Federation Pueri Cantores, was a special guest at the event. He praised the young singers for their high level of performance. “Music transcends culture and religion and raises mind and heart to the divine,” he said.
Pueri Cantores is an organisation that seeks to educate young people through Christian values and sacred music. In Asia, it is present in Japan, Sri Lanka and South Korea.
“In India, sacred music is a means of evangelisation for the Catholic Church,” Mgr Tyrala said. “I look at these boys and girls and I see the future of the Church. Whilst they sing, I see joy in their eyes because the grace of God arrives to them. It is a very good experience.”
The bishop is in Asia to attend a meeting on “The Church in Asia, the role of religious movements”.
“I experienced the inner life of the Asian Church,” he explained. In this continent, “Catholics are a minority and I think that there is a great need for evangelisation through activities like those of Pueri Cantores. Sacred music can reach man and play a special role in the evangelical mission.”
For this reason, he is not surprised to see young Hindus among the choristers. “Our motto,” he said, “is ‘We are tools of Your Peace.”
In india as elsewhere, some non-Christians might find in music a moment of reflection, and an answer to something important. Speaking to us in 1999, John Paul II called us “messengers of beauty, faith and love”. (NC)
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