My advice to others, especially young people, but older people as well is to try to take advantage of an opportunity because you never know where it will lead you. That’s what I did 12 years ago when I joined Our Lady of Lourdes Church Choir, Pittsburg, KS and went on a trip to the Vatican where we sang in St. Peter’s Basilica a couple of times plus toured other special places in Italy as well as Rome itself. When I was contacted in June asking if I would like to go on such a trip again Dec. 30-January 8, 2026, it didn’t take me long to say yes. It was to be a Jubilee Pilgrimage at the close of the churches year long Jubilee Celebration.
Carol Cook, Director of Music at Our Lady of Lourdes is an excellent director and we had practices every Monday evening and a couple of months of Sunday evenings as well as we prepared for our trip and singing performances in Italy. It was lots of work and travel to and from Pittsburg all those months but well worth it. There were 43 singers, Choir Director Carol Cook and organists Kathleen Brown - Cecora and Ken Weaver who performed at several basilicas during our trip. The 43 count included singers who joined us in Rome who came from Japan, China and Canada so it was really an international choir.
How do you get to sing at the Vatican and other special places? By invitation from the Vatican. You don’t ask if you can bring your choir. Carol received the invitation to bring a choir directly from Vatican officials. She had built a musical reputation with the Vatican as this was the fourth Pope she would have the honor of bringing a choir to perform in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The tour included Rome, Vatican City, Assisi, Loretto, Casica and Norcia. It was a lot of ground to cover in just eight days as two of the ten days were travel days.
The next few columns will cover some of the things and places we visited on this special choir tour.
