By Daniel Payne
CNA Staff, May 17, 2025 / 10:00 am
The Vatican’s sacred music school is seeking to teach Catholics worldwide how to sing ancient Gregorian chant as a means to help the faithful participate actively in the liturgy, including in papal Masses.
The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music said this week it is launching its “Let’s Sing with the Pope” initiative as a series of “short educational video tutorials” to make Gregorian music accessible to everyone.
The institute described Gregorian chant as a “rich heritage” and a “universal musical and spiritual language” used in papal Masses and other celebrations.
The video series will help “promote active and conscious participation in the liturgy,” including in upcoming papal celebrations, the institute said in an Instagram post.
In the initial video of the series, Father Robert Mehlhart, OP, the rector of the pontifical institute, demonstrated how the greeting of the Mass is sung by both the celebrant and the assembly.
The instructions will “help the people of God sing along with the Holy Father during the upcoming major liturgical celebrations,” the institute said.
The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music was founded by Pope Pius X in 1910. It is located in Rome, just west of Vatican City, at the former site of the Pontifical Abbey of St. Jerome-in-the-City.
The institute says it “currently has 153 students from 44 countries,” 10 of whom will sing in the guide choir at Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural Mass this weekend.
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Bishop W. Shawn McKnight said the goal of the process is a new, permanent decree on sacred music, with the goal of unity and greater participation in the liturgy.
Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, had listed a dozen contemporary hymns to be “forbidden” in the diocese.
“The Church’s musical tradition is a treasure of inestimable value, and musicians have a duty to preserve this great tradition,” Jonathan Schranz said.
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