Healing Music and Restoring the Traditions of the Catholic Church with the Benedict XVI Institute

Christine Arata
2 min readJan 11, 2023
Lourdes, France — August 28, 2021: A statue of the holy Virgin Mary — our lady of Lourdes
Taljat David / Shutterstock.com

Big plans are set for Saturday, February 11, 2023, for the world premiere of a new healing Mass honoring our Lady of Lourdes at The Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, CA for Frank La Rocca’s Messe Des Malades. EWTN will also be broadcasting the event live.

Messe Des Malades honors Our Lady of Lourdes and will surround the liturgy participants with a musical arrangement bestowing respite from the world. Guests will be transported to a restorative ambience, one reminiscent to that of an experience in the Grotto of Lourdes, in France. All this is to be performed by the Benedict XVI Choir, 20 world-class singers under the direction of Richard Sparks. Frank La Rocca begins his 4th year as COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE at the Benedict XVI Institute.

Here’s a sampling of Frank La Rocca’s music, in this 2019 video from his Mass of the Americas, The “Ave Maria” in the Aztec language, the language spoken by Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego in 1531.

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