Pope Francis is considered a "true music lover" as he is open to all styles of music.

Pope Francis has added more than 1,700 records to his Vatican City record collection, and in addition to classical music, he also listens to the hits of Elvis Presley and Edith Piaf, announced Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, on Thursday, after the head of the church was caught on camera leaving a record store in Rome.

Cardinal Ravasi published on his Twitter account a photo of the shelves full of CDs presented by the Pope. When contacted by the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, he said that Pope Francis has added 1,728 CDs and 19 vinyls to the Vatican's record collection in the last nine years. The most recent one was an old Edith Piaf vinyl with the French singer's most famous hits.

Some records he bought himself a long time ago, others were given as gifts

the cardinal declared. He believed that Pope Francis is a "true music lover" because he is open to all musical styles: his records include the works of the Polish composer Kzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki and the gospels sung by Elvis Presley.

As for the head of the church's favorite genre, Ravasi recalled: Pope Francis told him that when he was a child, he and his mother listened to a channel broadcasting Italian-language operas on the radio. According to him, this is where the bishop's love of music originates. However, the pope not only likes to listen to pieces by Giuseppe Verdi and other Italian composers, his records also include Argentine tango, mainly compositions by Astor Piazzolla.

The archbishop presented Ravasi's office with a collection of recordings from the Buenos Aires Opera House (Teatro Colón), all of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's works - 200 CDs published by Deutsche Grammophon - and Johann Sebastian Bach's Máté Passion, Goldberg Variations and recordings of cantatas, as well as - as the cardinal said - "passionately follows" the work of Richard Wagner.

The president of the papal council, who ends his term this year, emphasized that he would like to open the papal record collection to others.

About the predecessor of Pope Francis, XVI. Benedek was known to be an excellent piano player and especially loved the works of Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. II. On the occasion of the 2000 Jubilee Holy Year, Pope John Paul also released a record, entitled Abba Pater, on which the Polish Pope sang.

MTI

Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images