The National Catholic Registry
By Edward Pentin
July 7, 2020
A very private funeral for the popular film-score composer
Ennio Morricone took place July 6th in Rome,
the same day he died at the age of 91.
According to Morricone’s wishes, his soundtrack to the 1986
movie The Mission — a composition to which he was particularly
attached — was played as the priest blessed the body, the Italian news agency
Adnkronos reported. Only family and his closest friends were present.
Born in the former working-class Trastevere district of
Rome, Morricone died on Monday in a Rome
hospital where he had been admitted days earlier with a fractured femur. His
lawyer said he died “with the comfort of faith.”
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, in an interview with the Italian
bishops’ newspaper Avvenire on Tuesday, the cardinal recalled awarding
Morricone the Pontifical Gold Medal last year in recognition of his work. The
composer asked for the award ceremony to take place in the church of Sant’Agnese
in Agone in Piazza Navona, during a performance of Bach’s St. John Passion.
“He was very moved,” Cardinal Ravasi said. “On that
occasion, he told me, ‘Let’s hope they won’t put on great celebrations for my
death.’” In his will, reports said he had made
Pope Francis made a “short, affectionate phone call” to
Morricone’s widow Maria on Wednesday afternoon, to comfort her and
assure her that he would pray for him, Italian media reported on July 9. The
Pope also expressed his closeness to Morricone's family. The two spoke for a
few minutes, the reports said.
In an interview last year on his 90th birthday, Morricone
said he had cried twice in his life: when watching The Mission
for the first time, and on meeting Pope Francis.
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