Pope meets with young singers, speaks of inner battlefield

January 04, 2016

Pope Francis met with over 4,000 young singers in the Paul VI Audience Hall on December 31 and said in extemporaneous remarks that “Christian life is a journey, it is a joyful journey: sing, then, for this.”

Fielding three questions from members of the Pueri Cantores [Boy Singers], who were holding a conference in Rome, Pope Francis said that when he was young, he considered becoming a butcher. The Pope said that he has a life-long love for music, and stressed that "singing is good for the soul." But he said that he does not sing himself because "if I sang I would sound like a donkey."

“This struggle between the devil and God, will continue until the end of days,” he said in response to one question. “We all have inside each of us a battlefield-- inside each of us there is a struggle between good and evil: we have graces and temptations, and we need to talk with the parish priest and with our catechists about these things, in order to understand them well.”

Pope Francis spent some time speaking about anger, which he said can become a sort of illness that "poisons the soul." He said that "there are peopel who have a bitter soul, people who seem to live being always angry." He also lamented that the major media "show only ugly things," because they attract more attention. "Don't allow yourselves to be deceived," he advised the young singers; "there are ugly things in the world but also holy things."

 

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Further information:

• Audience to Pueri Cantores 2015.12.31 (YouTube Vatican)
• Udienza ai partecipanti al Congresso Internazionale dei “Pueri Cantores”, 31.12.2015 (Holy See Press Office)
• Pope Francis: a song for our Christian journey (Vatican Radio)
• Loves music but 'sings like a donkey' says Francis (ANSA)
• Foederatio Internationalis Pueri Cantores