October 15, 2010
‘It was fabulous!’
Diocesan Choir returns after 10-day trip to Italy
Members of the Diocesan Choir gather at the Altar of the Chair at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City during their 10-day trip to Italy. The group includes, front row, Shirley Trnka, Pat Burggrabe, Rosanna Evans, Betty Dunivan, Mary Barron, Olivia Kissel, JoAnne Reinhardt, Peggy Liberti, Andrea Theriac, Mary Payne, Colton Colbert, Angela Folz, second row, Jeremy Korba, choir director, Pat Flake, Mary Winiger, Pat Kerstiens, Chris Kohmescher, Susan Payne, Marti Aldenderfer, Alicia Brandle, Jennifer Korba, Patricia Colbert, Jeff Weber, Barb Peterson, Mark Hatfield, third row, Kirk Peterson, John Wolber, David Evans, Bob Reinhardt, John Trnka, Frank Liberti, Amy Miller, Jamie Sills, Ken Colbert, Remington Colbert, Kelley Coppens, Mary Kay Weber and Andrew Miller. Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Jeremy Korba has been back in Evansville a few days now so he’s had time to get over his jet lag and think about his recent 10-day trip to Italy with the Diocesan Choir.
He’s the choir director, and as he reflects about the trip he shakes his head and says, “If I saw the results of our trip ahead of time, I never would have believed it.
“The heavens aligned for us.”
The choir, which often in-cludes as many as 110 people from parishes all over the Diocese of Evansville, sings at ordinations and other diocesan events including the Chrism Mass.
In late September, 35 members, along with 25 others in-cluding spouses, left for a 10-day trip to Italy which included stops in Venice, Florence, Siena, Assisi, Padua, Rome and Vatican City.
Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger accompanied the group which presented concerts and recitals throughout Italy. Jennifer Korba was the featured soprano, and Mark X. Hatfield was the organist.
“We hit the ground running in Venice,” Korba said of the choir which sang at the High Mass at St. Mark’s Basilica there.
They visited Padua, before arriving in Florence where they saw “all the great works” including Michelangelo’s statue of David before singing at an “English High Mass” in the Duomo or cathedral.
The choir was so well received in Florence that it was hard to exit the church “because so many people were stopping us.”
When the group toured the town of Assisi, the home of St. Francis and St. Clare, they found a “strong sense of peacefulness” there, Korba said.
They began their stay in Rome with a visit to a catacomb where they saw the crypt of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians. In St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City the bishop celebrated Mass and the choir sang at the Altar of the Chair of Peter.
“I tried to prepare the folks for how big the Vatican was, but when they went in — some folks were speechless by that sense of grandeur.”
The group received a private tour of the Vatican Museum which included the Sistine Chapel. “We were there 25 to 30 minutes, and we did a short recital there. We actually sang in the Sistine Chapel which nobody gets to do. Our tour folks arranged it.
“It’s an amazing space with its acoustics and atmosphere. You see all the paintings around you. You are in the pope’s chapel, and to tie all that together — a lot of folks were teary-eyed.”
The next day, the group gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly papal audience. They were given special seating near Pope Benedict XVI. “We were the only group to sing, and our appearance was broadcast around the world on Vatican TV.”
The reading of the day was from Psalm 16, Dominus pars hereditatis meae et calicis mei: tu es qui restitues hereditatem meam mihi” (The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; it is you who will restore my inheritance to me) which Bishop Gettelfinger chose for his episcopal coat-of-arms back in 1989.
“You talk about the stars lining up,” Korba said, adding, “it was very neat.”
“At the end of the audience, the pope was talking with the bishop, and then he waved at us. At that moment, folks realized that that wave was for us, and there was a second round of crying for a lot of folks.”
During their visit to Italy, the choir performed in a variety of churches. “Every place we went the crowds were amazing,” Jeremy said.
At their last concert in Rome, “it was beyond standing room only. It was the citizens of Rome and people from all over the world.”
Throughout the trip, he listened as his fellow travelers experienced the wonders of Italy. He heard them say, “amazing,” “chance of a lifetime,” “I can’t believe it,” and “thanks for doing it.”
Their tour of Italy was designed to save the best for last, and that’s why they finished in Rome and Vatican City. In the early days of the trip, the travelers would comment, “It can’t get any better,” he said, and “everyone was lifted up and raised up by the new experiences. And then Rome . . . ”
Peggy and Frank Liberti are parishioners at St. Matthew Church in Mount Vernon. She says of the trip, “It was fabulous! It was awesome!” She added, “The bishop was with us, and it made such a difference.”
Her husband agrees. He credits the touring company with doing a “wonderful job” allowing the group time for sightseeing, shopping and eating. “The structure of it was just great. It was a beautifully planned trip.”
He said the high points of the trip were the tour of the Sistine Chapel and “also the Mass at St. Peter, at the high altar, that our bishop celebrated.
“When we sang at the Duomo in Florence, the echo lasted 10 or 11 seconds,” he said, adding that the “enormity of the Duomo and St. Peter’s was almost overwhelming.”
Overall, he said, “there were no low points. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
Many of the diocesan choir members are life-long Catholics who have lived in southern Indiana their entire lives. Korba said that “often their image of who they were as Catholics was tied to the concept that ‘I sit in the third pew at this church.’ At the papal audience, there were people from Africa, Denmark, Ireland and Australia. They saw they are part of something bigger.
“They saw the universality of the Church.”
Many times, he heard people say, “I can’t believe we are here,” and often they would mention their deceased mothers and fathers, saying, “I wish my parents could have seen this.”
And as they visited the tombs of the saints — Francis, Mark, Cecilia, Catherine and Clare — the stories of the saints “came to life for the people.
“If I saw the results before — I never would have believed it. It was a moving experience.”
He believes that now that the travelers have seen these sacred and historic places, “they have a piece of the places, these places are a part of them. They own that.”