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8th Annual Youth Choir Festival 2024-2025

Christmas Season in the Vatican

December 29, 2024 - January 6, 2025

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Dear Young Singers:

We are excited to extend this invitation to you to join us for the 8th Annual Youth Choir Festival during Christmas Season in the Vatican!

We will celebrate Christmas with our families at home. Then, we will travel to Rome to celebrate in Vatican City! We will arrive in Rome ahead of New Year’s Eve. It is the Holy Father’s custom to visit the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square following First Vespers for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God – and we will be there, awaiting his blessing, prepared to spontaneously sing our most treasured Christmas Carols!

A highlight of our pilgrimage will be attending Papal Mass on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God! During our pilgrimage, you’ll see young people from all over the world gathered in Rome to participate in activities of the Christmas season. You will join your voices with other young singers throughout our time together. This will be a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the sites, tastes, and sounds of Rome, and the enchanting streets of Assisi.

Of course, we'll also have the incredible opportunity to visit Rome and Vatican City during the 2025 Jubilee Year! A Jubilee is a Holy Year of grace and pilgrimage in the Catholic Church, which typically takes place every 25 years. The most exciting and well-known rite of the Jubilee year is the opening of the Holy Door at the four major basilicas of Rome: St. Peter’s Basilica, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, and the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

As the scheduling of musical details and preparations are underway, we hope you will consider joining us for this joyous festival, including many wonderful performance opportunities and the thrill of participating at a Papal Mass which is bound to lift our hearts and voices in great joy!

Dr. Jennifer Pascual, Dr. John Romeri, and Ms. Lauren McCaul

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