Archbishop Cordileone's gift of Marian unity to Pope Francis

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone presents a hand-bound copy of the score of "Mass of the Americas" to Pope Francis Jan. 27 at the Vatican. (Photo by Servizio Fotografico Vaticano)

Jan. 29, 2020
Nicholas Wolfram Smith

Just a year after its premiere, the newly composed Mass setting "Mass of the Americas" has reached the hands of Pope Francis, as Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone presented him with a hand-bound copy of the score on Jan. 27 at the Vatican.

Archbishop Cordileone said Pope Francis “reacted with a smile and his eyes lit up,” as he received the gift. In a phone interview from Rome, the archbishop explained to him that the Mass setting, which unites popular devotional music from Mexico with sacred polyphony, was being celebrated in cities in the U.S. and Mexico “with the vision of promoting unity among the people on the entire American continent.” 

Archbishop Cordileone, who was in Rome as part of a delegation of regional bishops meeting with the pope and Vatican officials, said he presented the score to Pope Francis as a tribute to Our Lady of Guadalupe, to whom the pope has a devotion, as well as a sign of the importance of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the history of the church in the Americas. 

The exquisite, Marian-blue leather book was accompanied by a custom silk book cover that was modeled after the vestments made for "Mass of the Americas." A gold band down the center has diagonal lines suggestive of the pyramids built by indigenous Mexicans, and teal trim against the gold calls to mind the mantle worn by Mary in traditional representations of her miraculous appearances to St. Juan Diego in December 1531 outside what is now Mexico City. 

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Both Archbishop Cordileone and Maggie Gallagher, executive director of the Benedict XVI Institute, which commissioned composer Frank La Rocca to write "Mass of the Americas," emphasized their hope for the Mass setting as an agent of unity and healing. 

Archbishop Cordileone said the score was originally commissioned as a way to bring together the Marian feasts of the Immaculate Conception and the Virgin of Guadalupe. 

“We all love Our Lady and she’s the one who unites us in the one family of God,” Archbishop Cordileone said.

Incorporating popular Mexican songs to honor Mary along with the church’s tradition of sacred liturgical music, and bridging the two, was another goal of the setting. 

Gallagher said the Mass setting found a “powerful response” at its premiere and gave them an early inkling of the appeal it held. 

“We became aware this really had the makings of a really interesting phenomenon,” she said.

After its San Francisco premiere at St. Mary's Cathedral in December 2018, the setting was invited to Tijuana, Mexico and then Houston and Washington, D.C, where it accompanied Mass in the extraordinary form. 

Gallagher, who said she had not been “particularly a sacred music person” when she first came to the Benedict XVI Institute, said she has found the music “very personally powerful.” 

“Every Mass is a miracle and should bind us together, and there’s something very powerful about experiencing this beauty together,” she said.  

“At each stop, we have had the same experience of an incredible outpouring of enthusiasm and unity in this form of prayer, which is always the gift of the Holy Spirit but partly a gift of really great music,” Gallagher added.  

The beautiful setting, Gallagher said, was able to cut across divisions inside the church and society. For the non-religious, she said, “it’s a shared experience of beauty which by itself lifts us up and reminds us the sordid ordinary world is not all that there is -- and that’s multiplied for people of faith.” 

In November, the "Mass of the Americas" accompanied the extraordinary form of Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. The event brought together the Latin Mass community with Guadalupe devotees, college students and Catholics from all walks of life.

“People came together to experience the divine presence of God without ideological boxes,” Gallagher said. “This music reminds us of what the Mass actually is, the miracle of Christ’s coming, the enjoyment of communion with Him.”

The Mass of the Americas will be performed for the first time in Canada at Easter. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the home of St. Juan Diego's tilma or cloak legendarily bearing Mary's image, will host the Mass setting on Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption.

Rick DelVecchio contributed.