Lenten Campaign 2025
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The next couple of years will be a busy time for a San Francisco-based institute promoting beautiful Church music and art.
In a dozen years, the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship has already injected much music, art, and literature into American Catholic culture, and more is in the pipeline.
Founded by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone in 2013, the year after he became archbishop of San Francisco, the institute promotes works by people like its composer-in-residence, Frank La Rocca, author of the Mass of the Americas, and its poet-in-residence, James Matthew Wilson.
A quote from Pope Benedict XVI that graces the institute’s website nicely sums up the reason for its being:
“The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely the saints the Church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb.”
The website explains: “The Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship’s unique mission is to open the door of Beauty to God. We pursue this mission through two great strategies: providing practical resources for more beautiful and reverent liturgies and energizing a Catholic culture of the arts.”
Artistic tradition
Maggie Gallagher, Benedict XVI Institute executive director, told Aleteia that the institute follows what she calls the “Renaissance Model: great new sacred music commissioned from the heart of the Church that uplifts souls and wins new converts by moving through the great cathedrals before ending up” in concert halls.
“The great artistic tradition of the Church inspires Catholics and wins admiration and respect from the wider secular culture.”
Gallagher said that Archbishop Cordileone wanted to “found an apostolate whose mission is giving the faithful a deeper experience of the Real Presence of Christ in the Mass.”
Peter Carter, music director at Princeton University’s Catholic Chaplaincy and founder of the Catholic Sacred Music Project, which is dedicated to training church musicians, is one person who credits the institute for inspiration and practical help.
“It’s been a great inspiration for me, both as a church musician and entrepreneur trying to get artistic endeavors off the ground,” Carter told Aleteia. “Seeing the work that they have done and continue to do has been really exemplary for me and for, I think, a lot of other people.”
He said that Cordileone’s leadership has shown that the Church’s support of the arts is not just theoretical.
Coming attractions
So what can the public expect from the Benedict XVI Institute in the coming years?
Next year is America’s 250th birthday, but it’s also the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Francisco. Perhaps few people realize what was happening on the West coast as the signers of the Declaration of Independence were setting pen to paper in Philadelphia.
“As part of our focus on helping U.S. Catholics take American Catholic history more seriously, we will promote the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Francisco by St. Junipero Serra and his brother Franciscans with a variety of projects including a new translation of St. Francis’ great Canticle for Creation by former California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia,” Gallagher said.
Then, in 2027, the Church will focus on the late Pope Benedict XVI, who was born on April 16, 1927. And at the end of the year, he will be remembered on the fifth anniversary of his death.
“We plan a major conference on the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI which will culminate in the celebration of a new Frank La Rocca Requiem Mass for Pope Benedict XVI,” said Gallagher.
Ongoing is the institute’s Advent/Christmas carol project, in which it commissions two new carols a year and premieres them in what’s called the Very Marian Advent Prayer Service in San Francisco.
As well, Archbishop Cordileone will continue promoting The Martyrs of Communism Project, a multiyear effort to educate Catholics both about the horrors of Marxist regimes in the 20th and 21st centuries and the heroic witness of so many Catholics living under them. He has commissioned two hymns: one for the martyrs of China and one for the martyrs of Ukraine.
“Next October 22, the Feast of St. Pope John Paul II, we will debut the third hymn to St. John Paul II and the Martyrs of Polish Communism in Chicago as part of a holy hour and panel discussion at the Athenaeum Center there,” Gallagher said. “We will launch a new online archive for Catholic victims of communism to record their testimony for the history books and for the use in video and audio projects down the road.”
Dream big and keep on trucking
And the institute will begin staging evenings for artists and art lovers, in the spirit of a successful retreat it held last year.
“Building a national network of fellowship among artists and inspiring patrons of the arts across the country will pay big dividends in reviving a Catholic culture of the arts down the road,” said Gallagher.
Ultimately, Gallagher envisions a Benedict XVI Institute National Center for Catholic Arts to help an emerging set of Catholic arts organizations grow in influence.
“Dream big and keep on trucking is kind of our motto,” she said. “Seems to be working so far, thanks be to God — and Archbishop Cordileone and the amazingly gifted set of artists we’ve attracted and to the patrons who’ve made this innovative work possible.”
And today we celebrate...