Pope Leo XIV Enjoys a Concert and Awards the Conductor the Ratzinger Prize saying Music is Linked to the "art of guiding the heart toward God"
In the presence of Pope Leo XIV, Maestro Riccardo Muti conducts Cherubini’s "Mass for the Coronation of Charles X" by the Choir of the Cathedral of Siena at a Christmas concert in the Paul VI Hall, during which he receives the 2025 “Ratzinger Prize“. The concert was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Pontifical Foundation "Gravissimum Educationis". The concert, held in honour of the Pope as he approaches the first Christmas of his Petrine Ministry, also marked the awarding of the 2025 Ratzinger Prize to the world-renowned conductor.
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE CHRISTMAS CONCERT
CONDUCTED BY MAESTRO RICCARDO MUTI,
TO WHOM THE RATZINGER PRIZE WAS AWARDED
Paul VI Hall
Friday, December 12, 2025
____________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters ,
I am deeply grateful for this Concert , on the occasion of the Nativity of the Lord. St. Augustine, in his treatise on music, calls it scientia bene modulandi , linking it to the art of guiding the heart toward God. Music is a privileged path to understanding the supreme dignity of the human being and to confirming him in his most authentic vocation.
I thank the institutions that promoted this initiative – the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum Educationis – and all those who, in various ways, made its realization possible.
I extend my greetings to Maestro Riccardo Muti, who today is being awarded the Ratzinger Prize, a sign of appreciation for a life entirely devoted to music, a place of discipline and revelation. Pope Benedict XVI loved to recall that "true beauty wounds, opens the heart, expands it," and in music he sought God's voice in the universe. In this quest for beauty, you, dear Maestro, had the opportunity to meet Cardinal Ratzinger several times, beginning when he attended concerts in Salzburg, Munich, and then Rome. In subsequent years, Pope Benedict attended your performances in the Paul VI Hall, where he awarded you the Grand Cross of St. Gregory the Great. The Prize you receive today is the continuation of that relationship, of a dialogue open to mystery and oriented toward the common good, toward harmony.
This ethical responsibility of musical art was well illustrated by my venerated predecessor Pope Francis , who loved music and listened to it with spiritual relish. Music, he said, "gives those who cultivate it a wise and calm outlook, which more easily overcomes divisions and antagonisms, to be – just like the instruments of an orchestra or the voices of a choir – in harmony , to be vigilant for discord and correct dissonances, which are also useful for the dynamics of compositions, provided they are integrated into a wise harmonic fabric." [1] Harmonizing means holding together differences that could clash, allowing them to generate a higher unity. Silence also contributes to this goal: it is not absence, it is preparation, because in it the possibility of the word is formed, in the pause the truth emerges.
Maestro Muti, your approach to conducting, the art of listening and responsibility, is also reflected in your natural inclination towards education. This is demonstrated by your connection to Italian conservatories and the practice of "open rehearsals," offered as a form of sharing, where every gesture is an act of trust, an invitation rather than a command.
Thus, it seems particularly fitting to award the Ratzinger Prize to those who have preserved what Benedict XVI has always considered the heart of art: the ability to make a spark of God's presence resonate through beauty.
I would like to thank the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra, whose involvement has allowed us to give voice to the talent and creativity of young people, and the Guido Chigi Saracini Choir of Siena Cathedral.
This evening's concert is an opportunity to raise awareness and commitment to education: millions of boys and girls around the world are excluded from any form of schooling. For this reason, I welcome with hope the creation of the Observatory on Inequality and Universal Access to Education , announced on the occasion of the recent Jubilee of World Education. The Dicastery for Culture and Education is rallying around this project those who care about the education of young people, starting with the Galileo Foundation , which has expressed its support by supporting this evening and the educational projects of the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation .
Sisters and brothers, as Holy Christmas approaches, I renew my invitation to persevere in prayer so that God may grant us the gift of peace. Upon all of you, and upon those following along via television, I cordially invoke the Lord's blessing.
__________________________________________
[1] Address to the participants in the IV International Meeting of Choirs , 8 June 2024.
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE CHRISTMAS CONCERT
CONDUCTED BY MAESTRO RICCARDO MUTI,
TO WHOM THE RATZINGER PRIZE WAS AWARDED
Paul VI Hall
Friday, December 12, 2025
____________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters ,
I am deeply grateful for this Concert , on the occasion of the Nativity of the Lord. St. Augustine, in his treatise on music, calls it scientia bene modulandi , linking it to the art of guiding the heart toward God. Music is a privileged path to understanding the supreme dignity of the human being and to confirming him in his most authentic vocation.
I thank the institutions that promoted this initiative – the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum Educationis – and all those who, in various ways, made its realization possible.
I extend my greetings to Maestro Riccardo Muti, who today is being awarded the Ratzinger Prize, a sign of appreciation for a life entirely devoted to music, a place of discipline and revelation. Pope Benedict XVI loved to recall that "true beauty wounds, opens the heart, expands it," and in music he sought God's voice in the universe. In this quest for beauty, you, dear Maestro, had the opportunity to meet Cardinal Ratzinger several times, beginning when he attended concerts in Salzburg, Munich, and then Rome. In subsequent years, Pope Benedict attended your performances in the Paul VI Hall, where he awarded you the Grand Cross of St. Gregory the Great. The Prize you receive today is the continuation of that relationship, of a dialogue open to mystery and oriented toward the common good, toward harmony.
This ethical responsibility of musical art was well illustrated by my venerated predecessor Pope Francis , who loved music and listened to it with spiritual relish. Music, he said, "gives those who cultivate it a wise and calm outlook, which more easily overcomes divisions and antagonisms, to be – just like the instruments of an orchestra or the voices of a choir – in harmony , to be vigilant for discord and correct dissonances, which are also useful for the dynamics of compositions, provided they are integrated into a wise harmonic fabric." [1] Harmonizing means holding together differences that could clash, allowing them to generate a higher unity. Silence also contributes to this goal: it is not absence, it is preparation, because in it the possibility of the word is formed, in the pause the truth emerges.
Maestro Muti, your approach to conducting, the art of listening and responsibility, is also reflected in your natural inclination towards education. This is demonstrated by your connection to Italian conservatories and the practice of "open rehearsals," offered as a form of sharing, where every gesture is an act of trust, an invitation rather than a command.
Thus, it seems particularly fitting to award the Ratzinger Prize to those who have preserved what Benedict XVI has always considered the heart of art: the ability to make a spark of God's presence resonate through beauty.
I would like to thank the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra, whose involvement has allowed us to give voice to the talent and creativity of young people, and the Guido Chigi Saracini Choir of Siena Cathedral.
This evening's concert is an opportunity to raise awareness and commitment to education: millions of boys and girls around the world are excluded from any form of schooling. For this reason, I welcome with hope the creation of the Observatory on Inequality and Universal Access to Education , announced on the occasion of the recent Jubilee of World Education. The Dicastery for Culture and Education is rallying around this project those who care about the education of young people, starting with the Galileo Foundation , which has expressed its support by supporting this evening and the educational projects of the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation .
Sisters and brothers, as Holy Christmas approaches, I renew my invitation to persevere in prayer so that God may grant us the gift of peace. Upon all of you, and upon those following along via television, I cordially invoke the Lord's blessing.
__________________________________________
[1] Address to the participants in the IV International Meeting of Choirs , 8 June 2024.
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