At a December 15 audience with musicians who will participate in the Vatican’s annual Christmas concert, Pope Francis remarked that “in art you immediately create fraternity; before art there are no friends and enemies—we are all equal, all friends, all brothers and sisters.

The Pope made a point of saying that he had asked Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, who is hosting the Christmas concert, not to include his remarks in the broadcast of the event. He explained: “the concert is art; this has nothing to do with it. Let art be allowed to express itself.”