COLOMBIAN NUN TO RAP FOR POPE
It’s an opportunity to show the pope our love through music, says Maria Valentina
CALI him our love the way that we know, which is through music”, Maria Valentina, 28, said.
“The cool thing about rap is that it sticks in your head easily. And when it has the depth of truth, which is Christ, then it is even more striking.”
The petite nun will perform a rap interlude among the cheerful Latin beats of the song Let’s Take the First Step by the United Catholic Musicians.
The ensemble headhunted her after she won a reality-show competition on television called Another Level.
The United Catholic Musicians hailed the naturalness of her rapping and invited her to compose and perform the rap interlude.
Francis will visit Colombia, a Catholic country of 47 million, from tomorrow to Sunday.
He is credited with aiding a peace deal signed last year between the Colombian government and the leftist FARC rebel force after half a century of war.
“Colombia welcomes you with open arms,” goes Maria Valentina’s rap.
“With one voice happily we say to you: blessed be God, who in his wisdom has brought you to our land to be its guide.”
The nun said she liked the rebellious spirit of rap. For her, it chimed with Francis’s own call to the young to “make trouble” — his way of telling them to fearlessly share their faith.
“Trouble in the way the holy father means it is being different, being bold and bringing a message of joy, hope and charity,” she said in the western city of Cali, where she is based.
“Our intention beyond just thanking the holy father is to act as a church so that all people can sing with us.”
Maria Valentina is a member of the Community of Eucharistic Communicators of the Heavenly Father in Cali.
The group was formed in response to a call from the late Pope Jean Paul II for artists to use their work as a means of spreading the gospel.
Its members include a television producer and a musical group, including Maria Valentina, which has made two records.
Maria Valentina also strums the ukelele and played rock guitar in her youth.
She said God saved her from a serious liver disease when she was a youngster.
“My dream is to be a good nun. Making music is a second dream,” she said.
“I want to make more recordings, but more than making people fall in love with my voice, I want to make them fall in with Jesus.” AFP