“Pope” music [Archives:2006/962/Letters to the Editor]

Paul Kokoski
[email protected]
I commend Pope Benedict XVI for pulling the plug on electric guitars and modern music in the Church. Pop music is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as the cult of the banal. Rock music is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. Here there is little chance for the sober inebriation of faith to take place. Rap music has a downward deflection that is condescending in nature. Traditional choirs and Gregorian chants, on the other hand, possess that solemn cadence capable of creating the correct ambience for perceiving God's mystery.

For those Catholics tired of the empty freedom experienced through pop music at Holy Mass and other liturgical events the Pope's latest condemnation of modern music is both refreshing and welcome. May leaders of other religious faiths follow Pope Benedict's good example.
——
[archive-e:962-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-07-10-p:letters]