Saturday, July 11, 2020

The funeral of Ennio Morricone




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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