The Christmas season is a time to reflect on what life is all about, Pope Francis has told an international group of performers.
“The time before Christmas calls us to ask ourselves, ‘What is it that I am waiting for in my life? What is the great desire of my heart?’ You too, with your songs, help awaken or reawaken this healthy human ‘yearning’ in the hearts of many people,” he said.
The Pope met with the group of singers, songwriters, musicians and conductors the day before they were to perform in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall for a benefit concert to help protect the Amazon and support indigenous communities there.
Performers
The line-up included: Lionel Richie, the US Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter; Susan Boyle, who was a 2009 finalist on Britain’s Got Talent; and Bonnie Tyler, whose songs ‘It’s a Heartache’ and ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ are among the best-selling singles of all time.
The Charleston Gospel Choir and several Italian performers were also part of the line-up for the 2019 Christmas Concert in the Vatican, sponsored by the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education.
The Pope told the performers and concert organisers that God is the author of the “yearning” people feel in their heart, “and he comes to meet us by this route.”
God cannot be found along the path of “vain compulsion to acquire possessions or to keep up appearances. It is not there that God comes; no one will meet on that route. But surely he comes wherever there is hunger and thirst for peace, justice, freedom and love,” the Pope said.
“Dear artists, I thank you for all that you do. I wish you the best for your activities and your spiritual growth,” the Pope said, asking that their hearts be touched by the “mystery of Christmas, so that you can convey some of that same tenderness to those who listen to you.”
Donations and proceeds from ticket sales were to go toward a Salesian project helping indigenous communities in northwestern Brazil and to a campaign of Scholas Occurrentes to raise awareness in 450,000 schools around the world promoting reforestation.