“Imagine” in St. Peter’s Square

By Thomas V. Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 12, 2025

I have been in Rome for the past two weeks—actually, I’m here for the entire month (not a work trip per se, but I’m working while I’m here). During that time there has been quite a bit of horrible news from the States, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk (which Peter Wolfgang wrote about for Catholic Culture today). It has been a somber couple of days as I wonder where our country is headed.

There have been some strange goings-on in Rome while I’ve been here, too. I was at the canonization of our two new young saints, which was a lovely experience, but I was unpleasantly aware of the gay invasion of St. Peter’s which had taken place the evening before.

Today I was in St. Peter’s Square again, and suddenly there was a bandstand set up with music blasting—a sound check for a concert tomorrow by Pharrell and a bunch of other pop stars. It felt like such a violation of the space, and I couldn’t help but think about the people making their first and only visit to St. Peter’s, confronted with what sounds like the Latin Grammies... Will they think this is the norm, that St. Peter’s is regularly used as a kind of hip concert venue?

The concert will be the conclusion for the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, one in a long line of vaguely Masonic-sounding events that have been held in the Vatican in recent years. At one point during the sound check, the band played some instrumental bars from John Lennon’s “Imagine”. I’d like to think they were just jamming on it for the sound check, that they won’t actually play it at the concert, but I’m sure that’s naive of me. “Imagine” is, I suppose, inevitable at such things as World Meetings on Fraternity.

It reminds me of a formative experience in the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe (by the way, don’t miss the outstanding new film about him which comes out this weekend). Kolbe saw a parade of Freemasons headed toward St. Peter’s Square, holding anti-Catholic slogans. If “Imagine” really is played in St. Peter’s Square tomorrow, it will be a repeat of what Kolbe saw a century ago—but this time, voluntarily hosted by the Vatican.