Dialog reporter
Talented voices from the Diocese of Wilmington will enhance Philadelphia’s papal Mass
When Pope Francis celebrates Mass Sept 27 for an estimated million-plus people on the Ben Franklin Parkway, 500 men and women will sing as the Philadelphia Papal Choir. Among them will be several talented voices from the Diocese of Wilmington.
Local parish music directors and choir members have been busy rehearsing with the group in Philadelphia on Monday evenings. Their excitement has grown as the Mass draws nearer.
“I love my job,” said Sandie Grieshaber, music director at Holy Rosary Parish in Claymont. “I love working here because you’re uplifted every time. But singing for the pope is the ultimate. It’s just great. I knew when he was coming I really wanted to get there.”
Grieshaber and the other singers from diocesan parishes will have a vantage point much closer to the pontiff than most of the congregation in Philadelphia that Sunday.
Bellefonte quartet
St. Helena’s Parish in Bellefonte will be sending four members of its music ministry – the maximum allowed from any one parish.
Members of the St. Helena’s choir who will be part of the Philadelphia Papal Choir include, from left, Sarah Dunn, Laura Hullinger, Margaret Louden and Joe Louden.
Music Director Joe Louden will be joined by his 13-year-old daughter Margaret, along with Laura Hullinger and Sarah Dunn. Louden said it was gratifying for the choir at the parish to be recognized.
“We’re really blessed with a lot of great singers. I think they would attest that it could have been any other member of the choir as well,” he said.
For the Loudens, this opportunity will help expand the family’s papal experiences. Joe’s brother Jack sang at two Masses for Pope John Paul II in Washington, D.C. Joe and his daughter are excited for the chance.
“He’s really famous and important in the world,” said Margaret, a student at Cab Calloway School for the Arts in Wilmington.
David Ifkovits, the music director at Church of the Holy Child in Wilmington, has conducted the parish choir and the Mastersingers at Archmere Academy, where he is a teacher, in Vatican City. The parish performed for John Paul II in 2001; the Mastersingers were there for Pope Benedict XVI in 2006. This, however, will be the first time he has sung for a pope.
“I feel fortunate and honored to have been chosen to be one of the many who will make the experience on the parkway historic, memorable and spiritually moving,” he said by email.
The other singers from Holy Child who have been selected are Karen McCaffrey and Matthew Nardone. Others from the diocese include Andrea Arena, Sue Johnson and Leo Schloss from Immaculate Heart of Mary and a teenager from St. Matthew’s.
The rest of the singers, as provided by the diocesan office of communications, are Mark Spalding, St. Joseph on the Brandywine; Ruth Sanders and Anthony DelNegro, Resurrection; Natalie Cooper, Immaculate Conception, Elkton, Md.; Ashley Kitchelt, Ss. Peter and Paul; Paula Gonzalez, St. Peter the Apostle; Laura Hannagan and Joseph Ambrosino, St. John the Beloved; and Mary-Anna Harvie, St. Edmond’s.
Hullinger said she attended a papal Mass in Baltimore about 20 years ago and was shocked at how quiet the venue became when John Paul II entered.
“There was this silence. It was the strangest thing. I’m curious to see if it will be like that. People are just so overtaken by emotion,” she said.
Philadelphia Orchestra
The audition process took place in late June and early July at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. Choir hopefuls had to do a warm-up to show their range, sing one of three hymns, show they could sight-read music and pitch-match. The participants from the diocese said their nerves were calm.
“Not really nervous,” Margaret Louden said. “They called my name and I didn’t even think about it. It was kind of quick.”
Dunn said she was worried “only because I didn’t think I had a shot with all the people I heard and saw there. Now that I’m in a roomful of singers, I’m not nervous at all.”
The choir will perform a prelude and postlude along with the Mass, and Dunn is looking forward to the Thursday and Friday before the big event.
“We have dress rehearsal, which I’m really excited about because we get to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center,” she said.
“That’s going to be awesome,” Joe Louden said.
No one knows how the choir will get to its appointed spot on the Parkway, but Louden said he has been assured that “there will be two things at the Mass – the pope and the choir.”
Most do not plan on having family try to attend, noting that they have a better shot of seeing choir members on television. Grieshaber said her son lives in Philadelphia inside the secure perimeter that will be built around the event, so he could just walk over to the Parkway. One of her daughters is a student at Catholic University of America in Washington, where Pope Francis will make an appearance before coming to Philadelphia.
She has secured two of the SEPTA railway passes from Wilmington, but it is not clear whether they will be used.
“My husband and my younger daughter are going to try to get there,” she said. “You just don’t know. They say it’s going to be crazy even to get on the train.”
Black attire event
If her family gets there, or even if they watch on television, it will be easy to spot the choir. They will be wearing all black – including ties, Louden noted. And the women’s dresses must extend below the knee, Margaret Louden said, explaining that she has some shopping to do before then.
Ifkovits said he’s had many “amazing” opportunities as a singer, organist and conductor, but this is up there with any of them.
“This could possibly be one of the most meaningful of those opportunities,” he said.
If you are singing at the papal Mass and are not mentioned in the article, please contact The Dialog at news@thedialog following the event to discuss your experience.
