Resurfaced 2014 video shows Pope Leo XIV, then Bishop Robert Prevost, joyfully singing “Feliz Navidad” in Peru—proof his rich voice has long lifted hearts.
Newsroom (03/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) A decade-old video that has gone viral on TikTok is delighting Catholics around the world: it captures the future Pope Leo XIV, then Bishop Robert Prevost, enthusiastically clapping and singing “Feliz Navidad” alongside a youth band at a parish Christmas party in Peru in 2014. The grainy but joyful footage shows the American-born prelate belting out the holiday classic to cheers from the crowd, offering a lighthearted glimpse of the musical charisma that would later define his pontificate.
resurfaced footage of Pope Leo XIV singing Feliz Navidad at a 2014 parish concert?
— Christopher Hale (@chrisjollyhale) December 2, 2025
The clip has struck a particular chord because it echoes what pilgrims witnessed on Leo’s very first Sunday as pope. On May 11, 2025, just days after his election, the new pontiff appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to lead the traditional Regina Caeli prayer. Instead of simply reciting the Marian antiphon, Pope Leo surprised the thousands gathered below by chanting it in a rich, confident baritone. Gasps turned to applause as the crowd realized they were hearing sacred chant delivered with rare beauty and warmth.
For Pope Leo, singing is far more than personal flair—it is woven into his priestly identity. The impromptu Regina Caeli performance that Sunday inspired an immediate Vatican initiative titled “Let’s Sing With the Pope,” a program that invites Catholics worldwide to learn the Gregorian chants and sacred polyphony the pontiff himself loves to sing.
Fr. Robert Mehlhart, director of the Vatican’s institute for sacred music, told reporters that Leo “has a lovely voice” and was already “an experienced singer,” honed by decades of chanting the Divine Office alongside his Augustinian confreres.
The pope’s musical gifts appear to be hereditary. His late mother, Mildred Prevost, was a respected church musician in Chicago who served as an organist and prominent contralto soloist. She performed at the 1941 Chicagoland Music Festival and regularly led Gounod’s “Ave Maria” at Sunday Mass.
Pope Leo thus carries forward a papal appreciation for music that marked his immediate predecessor as well. Pope Francis, in a 2013 interview, spoke movingly of his own love for classical repertoire, declaring Mozart’s “Et incarnatus est” from the Mass in C minor “matchless” in its ability to lift the soul to God.
From a Peruvian parish hall in 2014 to the loggia of St. Peter’s in 2025, the voice that once rang out with “Feliz Navidad” now leads the universal Church in sacred song—reminding the faithful that joy and beauty remain essential notes in the Church’s melody.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from classicfm.com
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