Classical Music in Poland and the Europe of Chopin - From the Reviewer's Notebook

Pope Benedict XVI has died at the age of 95  Funeral of Benedict XVI Pope Francis presided over the Requiem Mass of Benedict XVI on Thursday January 5  in St. Peter’s Square. This ancient rite a was on this occasion a moving ceremony of poised simplicity, as far as magnificent pomp and circumstance can be expressed by the Vatican. Pope Benedict had expressly requested this scaling down of the ceremony. This was the first time in some 600 years that a living Pope and contemporary occupant of the Holy See presided over the funeral of a previous Pope.  I found the homily given by Pope Francis to be a carefully considered strategic approach, given the present voracious and exaggerated appetite of the social and print media for the prurient and sensational in life. He concentrated on the nature of Christian faith and mentioned the 'wisdom, tenderness and devotion' imparted by Pope Benedict XVI only at the conclusion. The success of his ecumenism was clear from the many Christian fai