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CNS Story:
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POPE-ORGAN Sep-13-2006 (350 words) With photos. xxxi
Before private day, pope shakes hands, kisses babies, blesses organ
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
REGENSBURG, Germany (CNS) -- Before beginning a private day in his native Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI found himself shaking hands, kissing babies and blessing a new church organ.
The organ inauguration ceremony in the Old Chapel of Regensburg was the only public event scheduled for the pope Sept. 13. He was spending most of the day with his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, dining at their respective houses and visiting their parents' tomb.
When the pope arrived at the Old Chapel, a basilica decorated in rococo style, he greeted many of the hundreds of well-wishers gathered outside. His brother, wearing sunglasses and using a cane, accompanied him.
Inside, the pope gave a brief talk extolling the virtues of the organ as the ideal instrument for church music.
The organ, he said, is rightly known as the king of musical instruments because it can produce "all the sounds of creation and gives resonance to the fullness of human sentiments."
"By transcending the merely human sphere, as all music of quality does, it evokes the divine. The organ's great range of timbre, from piano through to a thundering fortissimo, makes it an instrument superior to all others," he said.
The pope compared the organ to the church community, saying both need harmony in order to operate well.
One or two false notes are not usually noticed, he said, but "if more pipes are out of tune, dissonance ensues, and the result is unbearable."
"Now, this is an image of our community. Just as in an organ, an expert hand must constantly bring disharmony back to consonance, so we in the church, in the variety of our gifts and charisms, always need to find anew ... harmony in the praise of God and in fraternal love," he said.
After the pope blessed the organ -- named the Pope Benedict Organ -- the notes of Johann Sebastian Bach's famous "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" rang out in the church. The pope, who plays the piano, listened appreciatively.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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