Dissonance in a Christmas concert
On December 12th, the pope received the organizers and the artists of a Christmas concert (see DICI n°86): "I am happy to meet you on the occasion of the Vatican Christmas concert, a demonstration organized to support the construction of new churches, particularly in the suburbs of the city of Rome". This year, represented among the singers were stars such as the Algerian Moslem Khaled, the Italian Gianni Morandi, or even the Pole Natalia Kukulska.
The day after this audience, the concert which took place in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican, was disrupted by the intervention of the singer of Haitian origin Lauryn Hill, the wife of Rohan Marley, the son of Bob Marley.
In front of an assembly of cardinals, bishops and the faithful, this artist, 28-years old, made a speech before singing, declaring that she was not there "to celebrate, like you, the birth of Christ, but to ask you why you are not in mourning for his death in this place. Holy God has witnessed the corruption of your leadership, of the exploitation and abuses which are the minimum that can be said for the clergy".
"There is no valid explanation to which would justify the Church", insisted the singer, a Baptist. Before singing she added: "I do not believe in the representatives of God, but only in God, men are sinners and they are the ones responsible for the corruption, so repent, repent!" She thus made allusion to the scandal of pedophile priests which shook the United States.
Present at the concert, Msgr. Rino Fisichella, auxiliary bishop of cardinal Camillo Ruini, judged this "outburst" as a "act of bad education and a lack of respect to the persons and the place which welcomed her". Another bishop of the diocese of Rome, Msgr. Luigi Moretti, pointed out: "we cannot prevent people from expressing themselves freely".
The Italian television channel Canale 5 will rebroadcast the concert the day before Christmas. One wonders whether Lauryn Hills outburst will be censured.
