‘Sounds of Loss’ to mark International Day of Peace at St Peter’s Basilica

Vatican News 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.

‘A summons to responsibility’ Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, welcomed the initiative, describing Gröning as “a true master of silence.” “In this project, he seeds the fertile ground of silence with short bursts of sound which serve to call our attention to the daily tragedy of the loss of life in wars around our world,” the Cardinal said. He described the project as “a summons to responsibility”, urging people to “hear the cry” of victims of violence and aggression and “never resign ourselves to complacency and distraction.” Cardinal Mauro Gambetti,