Days ahead of the Winter Paralympics, a choir from northern Italy traveled to Milan to perform a pop concert inside Sant’Antonio church, using music as a call for harmony and inclusion. The Feb. 18 event, titled “Like Yeast in the Dough,” took place as disabled athletes were expected to take center stage at the Milan Cortina Games, according to reporting on the performance.
The Terzo Tempo choir, which includes about 70 teenagers and adults, traveled from the neighboring city of Abbiategrasso for the concert. The group’s Feb. 18 performance was built around what organizers described as a Gospel image connected to the choir’s approach—an image of a discreet presence that helps someone rise from within.
The Archdiocese of Milan said the concert was part of its efforts to “seize the Olympic and Paralympic moment” to pass on Christian values, as described in the reporting. Rev. Stefano Guidi, who heads the Archdiocese of Milan’s Service for Oratories and Sport, said the Games are not something that merely passes over people.
“The Olympics and the Paralympics are not something that simply passes over our heads, but something that also touches our lives,” said the Rev. Stefano Guidi, in remarks carried with the report.
Guidi’s comments were framed in the context of the Archdiocese’s inclusion work. The Archdiocese of Milan created in 2021 a special branch intended to raise awareness of inclusion, with activities spanning local parishes and communities and aiming to encourage welcoming environments for both disabled and non-disabled people.
Rev. Mauro Santoro, who leads the office alongside 13 volunteers, said the inclusion effort should not isolate disabled participants into separate activities. “If we focus on organizing things only for people with disabilities, we risk segregation,” Santoro said, adding that the approach instead is to assemble activities that mix people together.
Santoro said the program’s structure draws on the role of oratories—parish spaces where children and teenagers gather after school for sports and recreation. In those settings, he said, training to involve people with disabilities and discussions connected to the Paralympics also take place, alongside other regular parish activities.
The concert at Sant’Antonio reflected the same mix-and-join goal. The repertoire included songs in Italian and English and also featured a Congolese samba, described in the reporting as a way to diversify the program and convey values associated with the Olympic spirit.
Silvia Gatti, the choir’s director, said the group tried to select songs focused on themes such as the desire to achieve something and constant commitment, emphasizing values that she said should apply beyond competitive results. “We tried to choose songs that speak about the desire to achieve something and about constant commitment because that is what really matters beyond the result,” Gatti said. “These are values that athletes believe in, but they should concern everyone.”
According to the reporting, the choir’s motto is “Where singing is unity, passion, freedom and joy.” The group said it welcomes participants from all backgrounds and encourages children to sing alongside people in their 70s, and said earlier performances have addressed topics including peace and opposition to violence against women.
None of the report’s details linked the concert to official sporting events on the calendar beyond its timing, but it did place the performance in the broader lead-up to the Winter Paralympics and the Archdiocese’s attempt to connect that attention to inclusion-focused parish programming.