Red Army choir performs for Pope

[emad]

By David Willey
BBC correspondent in Rome



Red Army choristers used to sing about "razing the churches"...

Pope John Paul II has marked his 26th year as head of the Roman Catholic Church by attending a concert given by Russia's Red Army choir.

Unthinkable before the fall of the Soviet Union, the event staged in the Vatican's general audience hall was televised live in Italy and Russia.

A Swiss Guard marched across the stage and a Russian military guard goose-stepped in the opposite direction.

Cossack dancers capered where religious ceremonies normally take place.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3748554.stm

Maybe old pal Licio Gelli arranged this apt treat for JP2????

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Not nearly as strange as a film I saw a few years ago

at the Portland International Film Festival.

The same Finnish rock band that appeared in Leningrad Cowboys arranged a joint concert with the Red Army Chorus in Helsinki. (I can't remember the name of the film.)

Imagine the Red Army Chorusk in their army dress uniforms singing "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Delilah" behind a bizarre-looking Finnish rock band.