It's Got a Beat and I Can Pray to It

For the last few days, all eyes (okay, not all but a lot of eyes) have been on Rome and the Vatican.  And when the smoke cleared (literally) today, we Catholics had a new leader.  It seems like an appropriate time to profile the flexi-disc I found at an estate sale about a month ago.  Entitled, "The Voice of the Holy Father", it's a recording of Pope Pius XII made in 1949.

 

It's double-sided.

A digitally cleaned version of side 1 can be heard here.  Strangely, the announcer speaks longer than the Pope actually does.

A less than stellar recording of side 2 can be heard here.  Side 2 suffered from warping more so than side 1, so some skipping occurs.  I also didn't apply a filter to that side. Hey, it was late and I was getting tired.