By Lou Baldwin • Posted April 24, 2015

One of the nice things about belonging to one of the choirs connected with the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul is chances are, the members will have a nice up-front view of Pope Francis when he stops by for the World Meeting of Families with a papal Mass planned for Sept. 27 in Philadelphia.

There are actually four choirs: the Cathedral Choir; Archdiocesan Adult Choir; the Archdiocesan Boys Choir and the Archdiocesan Girls Choir.

The next major event for the choirs is a Mother’s Day Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 10 at the cathedral. It will feature selections honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary drawn from works by  Bruckner, Bach, Tallis, Gounod and Lotti.

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There will be a free-will offering to benefit the boys’ and girls’ choirs who have two major upcoming events away from home.

On June 29 the Archdiocesan Children’s Choir will be singing in a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York for a world premiere of a Mass setting by composer Julian Revie.

The real extraordinary event for members of the children’s choirs is a trip to Rome Dec. 31-Jan. 7 by a select group of 32, who are members of Pueri Cantores, an international Catholic organization for children’s choirs.

They will participate in the International Children’s Festival for Epiphany with choir members joining with the Sistine Choir, under the direction of Msgr. Massimino Palombella, singing at the Jan. 6 Epiphany Mass celebrated by Pope Francis.

The group traveling to Rome will be led by John Romeri, director of liturgical music for the Philadelphia Archdiocese. Family members of the singers and staff of Romeri’s office will also attend.