American Federation Of Pueri Cantores

Encounters with sacred music can have a profound, transformational and lasting impact on the lives of young people. By bringing Catholic youth together to sing beautiful music from the Church's rich historical repertoire, the American Federation Pueri Cantores provides a unique opportunity to educate and engage these young singers in their faith and in the arts. In addition, Pueri Cantores offers resources and educational opportunities to conductors to assist with their knowledge and training.

The International Federation of Pueri Cantores, meaning “young singers,” arose from a divine calling to evangelize and serve. Founded in 1907 and quickly spread throughout Europe, our earliest mission was to bring joy and God’s peace to villages ravaged by World War I. These choirs of children singers spread faith and healing through sacred music. Today, there are national federations in 32 countries representing 70,000 young singers worldwide. Approved by every Pope since Pope Pius XII, the International Federation is the official student choral organization of the Catholic Church. In addition to performing in festivals in their home countries, nearly 5,000 singers gather in Rome on World Peace Day every five years to perform at a Papal Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. More than 1,000 Pueri Cantores singers and their families will be traveling to Rome this December/January for the 44th Pueri Cantores International Congress! This extraordinary week-long celebration is part pilgrimage and part choral festival that traditionally occurs every five years, bringing together Pueri Cantores choirs from around the world to participate in many thrilling liturgies and concerts. The Congress culminates with thousands of Pueri Cantores choristers singing for the Papal Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on January 1, 2024 (Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God), with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, presiding. It truly is a once-in-a-lifetime event for our young people and a huge triumph for the Church!

The American Federation of Pueri Cantores [AFPC], established in 1953, is a certified 501(c)3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Orange, California with small staff, an all-volunteer board, and modest overhead. Our mission centers around educating, evangelizing, and catechizing young singers across the U.S through the medium of sacred music, aiding them in growing their faith and rooting them ever deeper to the Church. The main way AFPC carries out our mission is through 12-16 annual Festivals for Catholic School and parish youth choirs (grades 4-12) in different locations across the country. Since 2003, AFPC has organized more than 195 regional festivals across the country, involving thousands of young Catholic singers in grade 4-12 from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and socioeconomic statuses. In the year before the onslaught of COVID-19 AFPC sponsored a dozen Festival Masses around the U.S. Over 2600 young singers were involved nationally. We continue to grow and will be offering a record number of 18 festivals around the country in 2025. Through our partnership with the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), AFPC also offers free resources and professional development opportunities, including 3 annual pedagogic webinars to music teachers, choir directors, and worship leaders of Catholic Schools and Churches.

AFPC's primary mission is one of evangelization. Today's young people in our Catholic Schools are the future leaders of our Church. In order to keep these young students engaged in their Catholic faith -today and for years to come- we must nourish their souls and wellbeing through enriching experiences within the Church. Participation in Pueri Cantores helps build the foundation of a child's Catholic Identity, spread the teachings of the Catholic faith, and creates long-lasting relationships with the Church. Many of AFPC's alumni singers go on to pursue vocations within the Church.

In addition to promoting individual faith formation among youth, the festival experience also encourages them to become strong, moral leaders and exceptional students. Studies show that children engaged in music outperform their peers on every indicator: grade-point average, graduation rate, SAT scores (31 points above average in reading, 23 points in math, and 31 points higher in writing), class attendance, and discipline referrals. AFPC is investing in the future of children by providing much- needed music education opportunities and promoting choral excellence and evangelization in Catholic Schools.

After a tumultuous few years due to COVID, we're thrilled to say that AFPC is finally graduating from a state of survival and moving toward a state of thriving. In 2023 we added four new festival locations to our 2023 Festival Season, organizing a total of 14 festivals that spanned the county. More than 2,000 young singers from 130 different Catholic Schools and parishes participated in a Pueri Cantores Festival. In several of our Festival locations, we partnered with local seminaries to provide children and
seminarians an otherwise unavailable opportunity to meet and mingle - an opening which well may seed future vocations. In Washington, D.C., Boston, and Southern California, young men from the seminary scholas lent their strong voices and leadership to the Festival Masses and also shared with the young singers their discernment and vocational choice of religious life. We will continue to build partnerships with seminarians in additional festival locations next year to give these strong examples of faith-filled young men a platform and put a face to vocations.

In 2024, we have added several new festival locations to our schedule for a total of 16 Pueri Cantores Festivals around the country, and we have a record number of 18 Festivals scheduled for the upcoming 2025 Festival Season! Our goal to expand our services, festivals, and resources and reach more young people across the U.S is becoming a reality!

Our objective is to increase the number of Festivals each year. Our hope is to eventually grow national participation to 10,000 singers which equals 1% of the 1 million students in U.S. Catholic schools in grades 4-12. It is also our mission to include outreach to rural and under-served populations. In this regard AFPC is launching an inaugural rural festival in 2025 in Omaha, NE, reaching farm communities in a 100-mile radius, as well as a festival in Fargo, ND. AFPC also commissioned Latino composers to create several sacred choral music pieces to respond to the lack of choral music in the Spanish language, whose pieces have been used in our repertoire for the last two years.

Finally, we continue our partnership with the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) to continue to be a primary resource for all 6,000 U.S. Catholic Schools by supporting the “Religion” and “Arts” component of the STREAM educational initiative and offering professional development opportunities, webinars, training, and free resources to music teachers, choir directors, and music educators.

AFPC has managed to weather the COVID-19 storm, but our most pressing need is support of our annual budget. Our projected expenses for 2024-25 is $302,240, almost one half of which is designated for festival expenses. The AFPC currently has one full-time employee and the need to bring on additional support staff is critical, especially with the growth we are experiencing.

It is AFPC’s hope to triple the number of Festival Masses over the next five years, increasing our budget to $726,900. This increased budget would enable us a) to enhance our staffing, b) to develop further our outreach to schools and parishes across the nation, c) to strengthen our communications and media coverage, and d) to organize and sustain effective fundraising campaigns. The expanded budget would also include closer programmatic collaboration with the National Catholic Educational Association and other, new partners interested in supporting our mission.

Orange County and nationally.