What was in Pope Francis I’s record collection?
Popular music and the Catholic Church have never had an easy relationship. While steeped in a rich heritage of Papal choirs and a broader patronage of the arts, the moment rock ‘n’ roll plugged in its guitar, the magisterium hasn’t appreciated its celebration of the profane and perceived focus on entertainment over ritual.
It took the Church 40 years to say anything officially positive about The Beatles. Holding a grudge ever since John Lennon’s “bigger than Jesus” quip, the Vatican’s daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano let bygones be bygones by celebrating their eponymous double album’s 40th anniversary by praising the Fab Four’s “unique and strange alchemy of sounds and words”. They put Lennon’s blasphemy down as “showing off, bragging by a young English working-class musician who had… enjoyed unexpected success”.
A small but significant step during Pope Benedict XVI’s tenure after he lambasted rock as a “vehicle of anti-religion” back in 1986, while a high-ranking dicastery prefect. Jump to 2013, and Benedict’s resignation led to the first Latin American Bishop of Rome, Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio, who adopted his pontifical name after Francis of Assisi, the 12th-century preacher and defender of the poor, highlighting the values he’d bring to the papacy.
Alongside his celebrated liberal influence on the Church, Francis was a keen devourer of music. In January 2022, he was spotted heading toward his Fiat 500 with a 33⅓” RPM vinyl under his arm, having perused Rome’s Stereo Sound record shop near the ancient Pantheon. During his days as a cardinal, he’d routinely visit the Via della Minerva music store and held such affection for the shop that he personally blessed the site after a renovation. Such a direct investment in music, coupled with the Church’s thorny relationship with it, suggests an appreciation and taste that may touch genres broader and deeper than any former Holiness before him.
So, what was in Pope Francis’ record collection?
According to Cardinal and Pontifical Council for Culture President Gianfranco Ravasi, the late Francis owned a collection of more than 2,000 CDs consisting primarily of classical music; Francis held a deep love for the stirring works of Bach, Beethoven and Wagner. His favourite was suspected to be Mozart’s ‘Et Incarnatus Est’ from 1783’s Great Mass in C minor, K. 427. In 2013, he praised the piece as “matchless… It lifts you up to God”.
He also touched on 20th-century popular music, as close to the dark side as a Pope is likely to get. As revealed by Ravasi, his native Argentinian tango would enjoy the odd spin with Astor Piazzolla’s jazz-inspired nuevo style with 1986’s Tango: Zero Hour, a prized entry in his collection. Cabaret and modern chanson vibrato powerhouse Édith Piaf was also in the mix. Her deeply personal songs on love and loss likely spoke to Francis’ humanism that guided his pastoral leadership.
Nudging closer to pop, American gospel from Elvis Presley and The Clara Ward Sisters could be found in his voluminous sonic library, alongside the spiritual end of Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison’s works. Elevating to an infinitely more universal and meditative realm, Brian Eno’s 1983 landmark Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks ambient record, featuring the immortal ‘An Ending (Ascent)’, also found its way into his collection.
While it’s unknown if Francis was partial to prog rock, the Vatican did give an official green light to 2015’s Wake Up! Music Album with His Words and Prayers, a collation of the late Pope’s speeches set to orchestral and rocking scores, assisted by Le Orme’s Tony Pagliuca. While languishing at a lowly number 50 on Billboard’s US Christian Albums charts, Francis’ looser embrace of music beyond Gregorian chants may well have pulled the ancient Catholic institute that bit closer to relevancy in an increasingly secular world.
