Clicking and tapping for 49 hours…
‘Sounds of Loss’: Vatican Basilica of St. Peter Hosts Noise Installation to Promote Peace
(parts of this composite image are © Philip Gröning)
A part of the Vatican’s magnificent Saint Peter’s Basilica will once again become the venue for an art project of sorts.
Back in 2015, the façade of Christendom’s most iconic church was misused as a projector screen for the so-called Fiat Lux climate change light show, which displayed upon it “the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of fourfooted beasts, and of creeping things” (Rom 1:23). Remember?
That was then. This time around, the focus is not on visuals but on what is audible. As Vatican News just announced:
The Atrium of St Peter’s Basilica will host Sounds of Loss on 21 September, the United Nations International Day of Peace. The audio installation, conceived by German filmmaker Philip Gröning, seeks to draw attention to the human lives lost in wars through a series of irregular clicking and tapping sounds.
The initiative is supported by the Holy See’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, the Dicastery for Communication and the Fabric of St Peter’s Basilica.
The installation consists of 1,096 individually recorded sounds, broadcast at irregular intervals over 49 hours. According to the project, each sound represents a person killed in war during that period. Based on 2026 statistics cited by the project, a sound occurs on average every 2.62 minutes.
(“‘Sounds of Loss’ to mark International Day of Peace at St Peter’s Basilica”, Vatican News, Sep. 18, 2026)
War is a terrible thing. Whether a sound installation like this is one of the better ways to draw attention to its evils, and whether the Vatican should be hosting it in the vestibule of St. Peter’s, is another question.
Either way, the fact that a brief noise is heard an average of only every 2.62 minutes means that visitors have to spend quite a while at the installation to get the desired impression. Most of the time people will just be standing around waiting, apparently.
Vatican News explains further:
Over three months, the project recorded more than 24,000 samples of clicking, knocking and banging noises. The sounds were drawn from 50 categories, including light switches, old telegram machines, clocks, door locks, cardboard boxes and pencils on tables.
The 49-hour intervention is designed to encompass 21 September across all time zones, beginning in Kiribati and concluding on Baker Island.
Other places of worship are also supporting the initiative, including the [Episcopal] Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City and the Cathedral of Santa Maria Matricolare in Verona.
On the official ‘Sounds of Loss’ web site we read:
The work consists of approximately 1,500 individually recorded sounds. Each sound represents one of the people killed by war on the International Day of Peace. Minimalist, clicking, knocking, tapping sounds. Similar to one another, yet each one unique. Just like the people killed every day in wars around the world. Over a period of 49 hours, SOUNDS OF LOSS will be played in a wide variety of institutions and public spaces worldwide.
Can’t be present at one of the chosen venues for this incredible experience? No need to fret: “The Vatican News website will provide a live online connection to St Peter’s Square linked to the Sounds of Loss audio during 20 and 21 September”, we are assured.
This whole thing seems somewhat reminiscent of the creepy ‘Sound Effects Mass’ that was conducted in 2013 in Austria. It was a celebration of the Novus Ordo worship service in near-total darkness, with the ‘priest’ and lectors whispering, repeating various phrases, speaking and moving slowly. ‘Sinister’ is one of the adjectives that fittingly describe the entire ambience:
By the way: Long before there were artistic sound installations at the Vatican, there were real Popes explaining what constitutes true peace and how to obtain it. Among the documents they issued on that, we may name the following:
- Pope Benedict XV, Encyclical Pacem Dei Munus (1920)
- Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Ubi Arcano (1922)
- Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Quas Primas (1925)
St. Peter’s Basilica is the largest church in the world. It was built in the 16th and 17th centuries and replaced what’s known as Old St. Peter’s Basilica, which had stood in the same spot since the 4th century.
Whereas for centuries the new St. Peter’s was used by real Popes mainly for true Catholic worship, for decades it has been occupied by anti-Catholic pseudo-popes, who use it for Neo-Modernist liturgies, sodomite pilgrimages, environmental light shows, and to play clicking, tapping, knocking, and banging sounds.
As for Philip Groning, some people may recall his 2005 film Into Great Silence, a documentary about the daily lives of Carthusian monks in the French Alps.
Perhaps Groning’s next installation could be playing sounds to represent the number of unborn children that are cruelly slaughtered ‘legally’ every day throughout the world.
It would be very similar to Sounds of Loss, except it would be much noisier.
Image source: composite with elements from soundofloss.com/media (© Philip Gröning) and Shutterstock (bmphotographer)
Licenses: used with permission and paid
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