The meeting, organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, and the Opera Theater of Rome, gathered composers, and liturgy and sacred music specialists from all over the world.
The Holy Father greeted the representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate and the World Lutheran Federation, whose presence, he said, «is a call to share our musical treasures, which enable us to make progress in the way of unity through prayer, which finds one of its most beautiful expressions in our cultural and spiritual patrimonies.»
Among those present Tuesday were representatives of the Jewish community, who shared their specific experience with the Christian specialists in sacred music.