Activism Change

Vatican Castrates Little Boys

Question:

Pope urged to apologise for Vatican castrations Tuesday August 14, 2001 The Guardian Revelations that the Vatican encouraged the castration of choir boys in the name of art for hundreds of years have prompted calls for a papal apology. Human rights groups, historians and Italian commentators said the Pope, a singer himself, should ask forgiveness for his predecessors’ role in the mutilation of castrati singers. New research suggests that the employment of castrati was tolerated by the Vatican as late as 1959, long after other states had banned it as barbaric. From the 16th century onwards generations of Italian boys were castrated in the hope that their voices, prevented from breaking, would combine a child’s high register with the vocal power of a man. Their ability to sing beyond normal human limits enraptured opera-goers, emperors and popes, who commissioned a choir of castrati to perform in the Sistine chapel. An edict by St Paul prevented women singing in church. Successful castrati such as Farinelli – the subject of G

Filed under: Human Rights

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