This Saturday, for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the famous choir of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany, where J.S. Bach once worked, will sing at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica with Pope Francis, German media report. The choir has sung in the Vatican before, but not at a liturgy.
The invitation had been made by Pope Emeritus Benedict, and was confirmed by Pope Francis.
One is tempted to add, Pope Francis surely won’t do a last-minute no-show for this musical event!
They will probably be the ones contributing the most to the Papae Marcelli Credo.
CTV’s programming schedule notes that the Mass is at 9:30 Central European Time. For me, that would mean waking at 3am to watch the Mass 🙁
Hopefully there will be archived footage, perhaps which can be eventually shown on PTB 🙂
I wonder if the pontifex emeritus will attend the Mass. Is pope emeritus Benedict permitted to concelebrate Mass on the papal altar? His health is very poor (as evidenced by his visit with Pope Francis after the latter’s election), so I doubt Benedict will be physically capable of concelebrating even if he is permitted to do so.
EWTN is also rebroadcasting it at noon on Saturday, at least on my local cable, and in the Eastern Time Zone. Check your local cable, especially if you are in a different time zone
Catholic TV
http://www.catholictv.com/pope-francis.aspx
is broadcasting it on the internet Saturday, June 29, feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Pallium Mass at 8 p.m. (with rebroadcasts Sunday, June 30 at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.).
And here, courtesy of Guido Marini is your libretto!
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/libretti/2013/20130629-libretto-santi-pietro-paolo.pdf
No not for the Papae Marcelli Credo!
But we can all sing along for the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei all from De Angelis
You can watch it live or videoed here
http://www.youtube.com/vatican
Papal ceremonies and a synopsis of Francis’ daily homily are available on the pope.app, download it onto your iphone or do a web-search!
Is this new? An announcement made before the beginning of the Peter and Paul Mass, in Italian, English, and Spanish:
“The celebration of holy Mass will shortly begin. In order to maintain an atmosphere of recollection and prayer, let us accompany the entrance of the procession and the Holy Father by refraining from applause.”
What a relief! I had always wondered why Benedict didn’t do something about the practice of making the beginning of Mass the entrance of a celebrity. (It also meant you could hear the double-choir “Tu es Petrus” that was sung well above the usual Vatican standard.)
As the liturgy proceeds, I must say that I’m enjoying the imagination of what Bach would have thought if anyone had told him that his choir would one day sing a liturgy in St. Peter’s. Not only that, but they are singing his own “Jesu, meine Freude” during the bestowal of pallia. It would surely have been as unimaginable for him as it would have been for the popes of his day!
You can always watch the papal liturgies at any hour of the day at the Vatican Viewer: http://www.vatican.va/video/index.html.
The Vatican commentators, unfortunately, sometimes make me want to pull my grey hair out.
It’s the kind of thing I heard in grade school some 60 years ago.
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