Andrea Bocelli talks about his strong faith in God | EWTN News In-Depth

[Music] he is known across the globe for his golden voice [Music] but italian tenor andrea bacelli also has a heart of gold and for the past 10 years has been expanding his charity work through the andrea bocelli foundation and today i'm meeting andrea and his wife veronica at the foundation's headquarters in the italian city of florence did you ever imagine andrea when you were a young boy growing up here in italy that one day you would be this huge star all over the world loved by so many selling 45 million records and now having your own foundation did you ever imagine this in your wildest dreams absolutely not nobody could imagine anything like this would ever have happened but it happened success is an accident on the road things happen because there is a grand design [Music] andrea buchelli was born with congenital glaucoma a degenerative eye condition and he became completely blind at the age of twelve i have always loved to sing singing has always been my true passion but i didn't like to sing when i was playing football with my friends i didn't like being disturbed or distracted from my games people would always call me come on sing for us and then they started calling me to sing in church at birthday parties at school everywhere so it became like meant to be meant to be when did you get the courage andrea to say to your family to those around you because i know you studied law when did you get the courage to say i want to be a professional singer well the life of an artist is a gamble from the beginning no one can be certain of succeeding in this career so you have to have some alternatives for yourself that then can be useful for the career if you are lucky enough to succeed so i studied a lot because this was what they wanted from me my parents it was the example they gave me i had studied and when i found myself in this career this was undoubtedly very useful i heard you say once in an interview andrea when you were telling people i want to be a singer somebody said to you yeah you're good you're good but nobody will pay a dollar to hear you sing you remember that yes i remember my father told me when people tell you good job this means nothing the day that they are willing to pay a ticket to come to hear you then you can say that you are a singer [Music] as well as his passion for music he has always had a strong passion for his catholic faith and has even performed for three popes at the vatican [Music] i know that you are a man of strong faith you have a strong catholic faith how important is your religion to you for me i can say it is a reason for life because life even if you last a hundred years is so insignificant when you compare it to eternity if life didn't exist an eternal life life after life then everything would lose all meaning so my faith comes from extremely simple reasoning i do not believe in the clock without the clockmaker i don't think anything can be achieved without someone who has designed and built it therefore i have faith i have a lot of faith in the one who made the world i read once a quote from you you said everyone has a destiny but destiny is god what did you mean by that whoever puts his life in the hands of the one who created it who wants him desires and loves him puts their life in good hands [Music] it is absolutely true that too much is given much is asked i cannot imagine what will be asked of me when i find myself face to face with the one who made the world because so much has been given to me i've been given a unified family that has supported me and loved me i am loved by my friends that i have close to me loved by my wife my children and loved by the fans i've had a life of rich possibilities of experiences so much received and so there is so much i should try to give [Music] it's this strong fate that led him to establish the andrea buchelli foundation in 2011 with his wife veronica together they lead this charity which aims to empower the poor and those in need all over the world with a focus on educational projects what was it andrea when you looked around at the situation what saddened your heart and made you want to help momentum if i had to pinpoint a moment when i had the greatest desire within me to do something for the world it would be the time when veronica woke me up in tears because of what happened in iit with the earthquake and the tragedy that was happening in the country in that moment i understood that the time had come for me to be active and to do something to the activist and veronica among all the many other things you do you're heavily involved in the foundation give me an example of some of the projects that you work on uh when we started almost 10 years ago i mean this year is going to be the 10-year celebration which is a big number from a certain point of view a very small one on the other so i want to believe that whatever we've been able to achieve during the past years is just to kick off a week what we can do in the future the amazing power of life just to be together to do something good for somebody else then god is there the foundation has been increasing its charity work with a strong focus on helping the people of haiti and at home here in italy after a devastating earthquake in 2016 and for andrea and veronica they say this is just the beginning andrea what are your hopes and dreams for the future of the foundation here i am confident that the foundation will grow in size in projects in quantity and quality of the projects grace and speaking of hope it was that very message a message of hope and light that andrea bacheli transmitted to the world when he performed a special concert in an empty milan cathedral at the height of the covet pandemic his message to the world was simple this too shall pass it is difficult to find words that can really uplift those who are suffering suffering is a condition that has always touched me deeply it is always difficult to say a word to comfort to those who really suffer but certainly humanity has known even more difficult times than this so one must look with great optimism forward because this time too will pass when you look back at your amazing life so far and your illustrious career what are you most proud of the way that i've been able to capture people's arts for me this is really the most important thing any regrets regrets no regrets no maybe some things i would have done differently but regrets now [Music] is [Music] [Applause]

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television, andrea, bocelli, andreabocelli, singer, tenor, italian, album, music, interview, faith, talking, florence, italy, vatican, time, to, say, goodbye

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Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021