The Priests: The Irish trio bringing sacred music to the world
The Irish trio of priests—Fathers Eugene O'Hagan, Martin O'Hagan, and David Delargy—have continued to evangelize through sacred music for nearly two decades since their first album in 2008. Their music career began when a Sony scout heard them sing in Rome, leading to four albums that sold almost two million copies worldwide. The Priests use their performances as a form of ministry, viewing music as prayer and a means to draw people toward Catholic faith. They recently returned to Rome to celebrate the centenary of the Pontifical Irish College, marking a pilgrimage that included performances in historic churches.
25 days ago
The Irish priestly trio The Priests has spent nearly two decades combining international music performances with Catholic evangelization. Fathers Martin O’Hagan, Eugene O’Hagan, and David Delargy began singing together as students, were discovered by Sony in 2008, and have since released several albums while continuing their parish ministries. 1
The three priests first sang together at a boarding school in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. They later continued performing together while studying at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome. 1
Their career changed unexpectedly in 2008, when a Sony representative heard them sing and sent a scout to assess their potential. The group subsequently signed a contract on the steps of Westminster Cathedral and recorded its first album, The Priests. 1
The debut album sold nearly two million copies worldwide. The group later released Harmony in 2009, Noël in 2010, and Alleluia in 2016, along with the 2012 compilation Then Sings My Soul: The Best of The Priests. 1
Father David Delargy said performing does not separate him from his priesthood. He described sacred music as another way of ministering, with concertgoers understood as a congregation rather than merely an audience. 1
Delargy said music can evoke emotions, thoughts, and feelings that might not arise through words alone. In his view, God can use the group’s voices and instruments for religious purposes. 1
He also characterized sacred music as prayer, citing the traditional attribution to St. Augustine that singing is praying twice. Delargy said music can express praise, peace, and prayer, while also accompanying people experiencing hardship. 1
Nearly 20 years after their commercial breakthrough, The Priests returned to Rome to commemorate the centenary of the Pontifical Irish College. All three members studied at the college and have served in the Diocese of Down and Connor for 35 years. 1
The anniversary celebration included a musical pilgrimage to historic Roman churches, joined by other priests and faithful who had traveled from Ireland. 1
Delargy said sacred music may be the only direct point of contact some people have with Christianity. He presented music as a possible means through which people are drawn toward Catholic faith and practice. 1
The group’s work therefore combines public performance, the preservation and presentation of sacred repertoire, and the priests’ continuing understanding of music as part of their pastoral vocation. 1
Evaluate sacred music as a contemporary Catholic evangelization tool
Sacred music remains a powerful contemporary Catholic evangelization tool, but its effectiveness depends on whether it serves the Gospel rather than merely producing an attractive religious atmosphere. Catholic teaching presents music as evangelizing in three connected ways: it draws people toward transcendence, forms the faith of those who sing and listen, and gathers the Church into visible unity.
Music reaches the whole person—intellect, emotion, imagination, and memory. Sacred music can therefore create an opening for people who are not yet ready to accept Christian doctrine explicitly. John Paul II described religious music as building “bridges” between the message of salvation and people who are sensitive to beauty, because beauty can become “a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence.”
This is particularly valuable in a culture where many people distrust institutions but remain receptive to beauty, silence, symbol, and authentic spiritual experience. Concerts, choral prayer, hymnody, and well-prepared liturgies can introduce people to the biblical narrative, the life of Christ, the saints, and the mysteries of Christian existence.
Yet beauty is not evangelization by itself. It must lead beyond aesthetic pleasure toward conversion, prayer, and encounter with Christ. Otherwise sacred music risks becoming cultural nostalgia or a religious concert detached from the Church’s worship.
Music does not merely communicate ideas; it helps people internalize them. Sacred texts repeated in song become part of memory and prayer. Pius XII taught that sacred music should raise the minds of the faithful to God and make the Church’s prayers more fervent and effective.
This formative function is especially strong when the congregation participates. John Paul II noted that popular religious song can open hearts to the deeper meaning of its texts, proclaim the one faith, and unite large assemblies in recollected prayer. Sacred music therefore supports evangelization not only by attracting newcomers but also by forming baptized Catholics in Scripture, doctrine, and the liturgical year.
The principal danger is superficial sentimentality. Paul VI warned against songs that are overly emotional or unsuitable to the spirit of the liturgy, insisting that music for Christian prayer should arise from genuine faith and deep spiritual formation. A song may be popular, emotionally moving, and musically effective while still offering little theological substance or an inadequate image of God.
Sacred music has its strongest evangelizing power when it belongs organically to the liturgy. The Eucharist is not simply an event at which music is performed; it is the Church’s worship of God and participation in Christ’s saving mystery. Pope Francis emphasized that singing can unite hearts, reveal the communal and hierarchical nature of the liturgy, and lift minds toward heavenly realities.
This means that liturgical music should not turn worship into a performance. The criterion is not musical grandeur but participation in the mystery. The Church has explicitly taught that the solemnity of worship depends less on ornate singing than on the worthy and religious celebration of the liturgy.
For evangelization, this is decisive. Visitors are more likely to encounter the Church’s faith when music expresses prayer, reverence, intelligible texts, and communal participation—not when musicians dominate the celebration or pursue artistic self-expression.
A contemporary evangelizing Church should not treat sacred music as frozen in one historical style. The Catholic tradition includes Gregorian chant, polyphony, vernacular hymns, popular religious music, instrumental music, and legitimate local forms. John Paul II recognized both popular religious music and traditional music as valuable when they educate religious sensibility and express the native genius of a people.
Pius XII similarly encouraged missionaries to use melodies and musical languages familiar to the people being evangelized, so that Christian hymns could communicate the truths of faith in culturally accessible forms. This principle remains relevant to contemporary evangelization: African, Asian, Latin American, Indigenous, urban, and digitally mediated cultures should be able to praise God through forms they can genuinely inhabit.
Inculturation, however, is not simple imitation of secular trends. Music used in worship must remain worthy of the mystery and consistent with the spirit of the liturgy. The Synod of Bishops cautioned against musical forms whose profane elements adversely affect divine worship. The question is therefore not whether a style is old or new, but whether it is artistically sound, theologically faithful, prayerful, and suited to communal worship.
Sacred music evangelizes most effectively when parishes:
The Church has repeatedly stressed the need for serious formation and a carefully developed repertoire.
Sacred music is a highly credible contemporary evangelization tool because it communicates the Gospel through beauty, forms Christian memory, creates communal unity, and disposes people to prayer. Its success, however, cannot be measured by attendance, emotional intensity, or artistic sophistication alone. Sacred music evangelizes when it leads from beauty to truth, from participation to communion, and from liturgical worship to a transformed Christian life.