Across his epic career, Andrea Bocelli has performed for the last three pontiffs and now it’s Pope Leo XIV’s turn.
Ahead of his free performance this weekend with Pharrell Williams in St Peter’s Square, the Italian tenor has met with the new Head of the Roman Catholic Church in Castel Gandolfo, just outside of Rome.
Bocelli recently told Daily Express: “I have a lot of hope in this new Pope, who is someone who has a deep faith… and is a highly knowledgeable and cultural person.”
Accompanied by his family on the visit, the 66-year-old sang a duet of Dolce è Sentire, with his son Matteo Bocelli, for the inauguration of the Laudato Si’ Village.
Posting the performance on social media, a statement read: “The Laudato Si’ project, is a living space dedicated to education, ecology, and fraternity, where art, culture and spirituality come together to promote integral human development and care for our common home.”
Bocelli posted on Instagram: “It was deeply moving to witness firsthand the tangible expression of what Pope Francis so powerfully advocated in his encyclical Laudato Si’: the urgent need for an ecological conversion for our common earthly home. A decade later, the project bearing the same name on the grounds of Castel Gandolfo stands as a perfect example of this vision — a true miracle of goodwill, where the splendor of nature and human endeavor meet: “a creature among creatures,” as Pope Leo XIV underlined, entrusted with the sacred duty of care (for nature “cannot but speak to us of God”).
Bocelli added: “The joy of witnessing the inauguration of the Laudato Si’ Village — a virtuous center of advanced education, inclusion, hospitality, and sustainability — was made even greater by the honor of singing before the Holy Father, a man of God and a figure of the highest stature, both spiritual and intellectual. When, together with my son Matteo, we intoned Dolce Sentire — a prayer that evokes the sacredness and harmony of creation — I felt, as I had not in a long time, the strength of Divine Providence and a renewed serenity in celebrating the universal Church, which in Pope Leo XIV has found a new and steadfast Shepherd, a beacon to guide us through these complex times.”