Gounod's Papal March

The celebated French composer Charles Gounod composed the Inno Pontificale or Marcia Pontificale for the silver jubilee of the priestly ordination of Pope Pius IX. It was first performed, to great acclaim, on 11 April 1869, by seven pontifical bands and a chorus of a thousand. In 1949, on the eve of the Holy Year in 1950, Pope Piux XII declared this the official papal anthem.

In the Philippines, particularly in the Cebuano speaking areas of the Visayas and Mindanao, this rousing anthem is often sung at solemn occasions such as ordinations as Yutang Tabonon, which is a prayer for the Philippine nation and Church.

I thought of sharing this hymn as a way of accompanying the Holy Father's visit to the United States, and of asking for prayers for his safety and the fruitfulness of his mission. This visit is, to my mind, an act of courage.

Despite the caricatures and misinterpretations of his character and message in the sometimes religiously tone deaf press and media, Pope Benedict, particularly through his homilies and encyclicals, speaks with the erudition and nuance of an intellectual, the courage and compassion of a shepherd, and the depth and insight of a man of obviously profound prayer and faith. He has reminded us of what is most essential: the love and hope of the Gospel, so badly needed by ourselves and our world, so graciously and unfailingly offered to us by God in Christ.