Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is "well on his 90th birthday," his personal secretary and Prefect of the Pontifical Household, Msgr Georg Gaenswein, said Tuesday, dismissing as "fake news" reports he was not well.
"What was put in my mouth on his conditions is to be cancelled," said Gaenswein. "As for the piano, he has changed: now he listens, more than playing the piano," he said. In reply to a journalist's question, Gaenswein said the choir master of the Sistine Chapel, Massimo Palombella, "always gives Pope Benedict the CD that is coming out and he listens to it, and not only once. Therefore he appreciates music, and very much so".
Gaenswein also stressed that "music is important not only at 'strong' liturgical occasions like Christmas, but year round: beauty is expressed in faith, and in this sense music acts not only for aesthetic ends but for the ends of faith".
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