Sacred Voices: Vatican Choir Marks Palestrina’s 500th in New York
National Catholic Register, 7 August 2025
On tour in the U.S., the Vatican choir revives Palestrina’s legacy with sacred music praised by popes and saints.
A Vatican concert tour this week in New York City highlights the Catholic tradition of sacred music during the 500th anniversary of the birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.
The “Sacred Voices” choir, now touring New York, was received by Pope Leo XIV in June, when he offered some reflections on the role of sacred music — especially the polyphony of which Palestrina was one of the great composers.
Sacred Voices is the choir of the Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci Foundation, established in 2004 to honor the work of Bartolucci, who for some 40 years was the director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, which provides the music for papal liturgies at St. Peter’s Basilica. Cardinal Bartolucci was forced out of his position in 1997, a sign of the diminishing importance placed on sacred polyphony in the Roman tradition, of which the cardinal was the great master, both as a director and composer.
On Tuesday evening at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, Sacred Voices offered a program including selections from Palestrina as well as Cardinal Bartolucci, including the latter’s settings of antiphons for Corpus Christi and Holy Thursday.
In 2004, the Bartolucci Foundation was created to carry on the work of the great maestro. In 2005, one of his great defenders, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was elected pope, and in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI arranged for Cardinal Bartolucci to return for a concert in the Sistine Chapel, which the Holy Father personally attended. In 2010, he further honored him by naming him a cardinal at age 93. Cardinal Bartolucci died in 2013.
For the quincentenary of Palestrina’s birth in 1525, Sacred Voices has recorded his most famous work, the six-voice Missa Papae Marcelli, long associated with Pope Marcellus II, who served 22 days, from April 9 to May 1, 1555. The CD was released this past June along with a special Vatican City State postage stamp.
On June 18, Pope Leo XIV received the Bartolucci Foundation in audience for the occasion, and Sacred Voices performed for the Holy Father some parts of the Missa Papae Marcelli. Pope Leo then reflected on the importance of sacred polyphony.
“Polyphony itself is a musical form rich in meaning, for prayer and for Christian life,” the Holy Father said. “It achieves this purpose by entrusting the words to several voices, each repeating them in its own original way, with varied and complementary melodic and harmonious movements. … The effect of this dynamic unity in diversity — a metaphor for our common journey of faith under the guidance of the Holy Spirit — is to help the listener enter ever more deeply into the mystery expressed by the words.”
Concluding his reflection in an Augustinian key, the Holy Father recalled the words of St. Augustine on the Easter Alleluia:
So now, my dear brothers and sisters, let us sing. … In the way travelers are in the habit of singing; sing, but keep on walking. … Make some progress, make progress in goodness. … Sing, and keep on walking.
Pope Leo XIV’s words suggest that the importance of music and art might become a favored theme of his, as it was for St. Augustine. During the busy days of the Jubilee for Youth, the Holy Father asked for an informal meeting with the artists who were engaged in the various youth events.
“I wanted to have this small meeting, let’s say familiar, with you just this morning, knowing about the beauty, the art, the music, all your talents that you offer to this great audience that we have in Rome these days,” Pope Leo said. “[Your talent] gives voice to what we have in our hearts, and which is above all the desire to find happiness, joy, love; to experience faith also with the gifts that the Lord has given us: music, dance and many artistic forms that you will share this afternoon with young people.”
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