Pope to release his own music album

Photo: Sam Herd

Special to Earthpages.org

Pope will release a music album in November next, according to reports.   His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will release “Alma Mater – Music From The Vatican” featuring Marian hymns, prayers, chants, etc., including “Regina Coeli”, by California (USA) based record label Geffen Records owned by Universal Music Group (UMG), which is a subsidiary of Vivendi.

Pope, accompanied by the choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, will sing specially-commissioned pieces from international group of composers of various faiths, a collection of Lauretan Litanies and Marian popular chants, in French, Latin, Italian, German, and Portuguese.

With this album, Pope will be joining Ashlee Simpson, Guns N’ Roses, Snoop Dogg, Nirvana, Elton John, etc., on this label. UMG, headquartered in Santa Monica (California), is the world’s leading music company with offices in 71 countries. Vivendi, based in Paris, is a world leader in communications and entertainment. Jean-Bernard Lévy is the Chief Executive Officer of Vivendi while Jean-René Fourtou is its Board Chairman. “Alma Mater” is Latin for “nourishing mother”. Proceeds from this album will go for providing music education for underprivileged children around the world.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed has commended Pope for helping for music education of world’s underprivileged children, his love of music which is a unifying force, and for using composers from different faith groups thus sending a message of unity of mankind.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, also applauded Pope Benedict for reportedly including verse from ancient Hindu scripture Upanishads in the last Good Friday Meditations and Prayers led by him at Roman Colosseum; and also incorporating a verse from India’s Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali and reference to peace icon Mahatma Gandhi in these prayers.

Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, stressed that all religions should work together for a just and peaceful world. Dialogue would bring us mutual enrichment, he added.

Pope Benedict heads the Roman Catholic Church, which is the largest of the Christian denominations. Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksha (liberation) is its ultimate goal.