An exciting and promising development is underway in this country. Growing numbers of parents, grandparents and choir directors throughout the nation are being touched by the ineffable power of children and young adults singing sacred music. Readers of this column can share in this enlightenment by visiting www.pcchoirs.org, the website of the American Federation Pueri Cantores.
The American Federation of Pueri Cantores (AFPC) is part of the International Federation Pueri Cantores which is the official international student choral group of the Catholic Church recognized by the Vatican. AFPC has been around in the United States since the middle of the last century. However, in the rocky years following Vatican II the organization experienced decline and was essentially dormant. In the past fifteen years it has found its ‘legs’ (or more appropriately its voice) and is now well under way to become a national force in the apostolate of exposing young people to the beauty and numinous dimensions of sacred music. One can appreciate the interest parents have in AFPC. In a society that seems to make every effort to absorb their children in secular distractions, AFPC engages them in edifying encounters not just with youngsters in their hometowns but with their peers across the nation and, indeed, across the world. What unites them is the shared exhilaration of sacred choral music, an experience which inevitably raises their awareness of the Divine.
‘Struck down but not destroyed’ (2 Cor.) by COVID, AFPC is entering a new phase of expansion. During the Lenten season in the coming year (2024) it will organize ‘festival Masses’ and concerts in sixteen regional venues in this country. These ‘centers of vibrancy’ will be in Phoenix. Tampa, Salt Lake City, Chicago, San Antonio, Houston, New York, Milwaukee, Boston, Garden Gove (California), Louisville, San Francsico, Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne-South Bend, and Washington, D.C. This developing outreach is very exciting and is expected to continue rapidly.
Another of the many facets of AFPC that attract parents is the trip to Rome the young singers (and their families) make every five years to perform at an international papal Mass in St. Peter’s. Imagine American teenagers performing stirring liturgical music alongside their counterparts from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The next Roman excursion is at the end of this year. Around the world rehearsals have begun!