Heavy Metal Monk

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AnotherFriend33 said:
Come on, take a breath, please. I am not irrational, I know my comments sound hard, but I only aim to protect the Roman Catholic Church from something that on my view does not seem right. Before you lose your patience, try to understand what he said on this interview:

Source: ca.reuters.com/article/idCAL1466485620080718

I am not a Priest, but I understand that nobody is forced to take vows.
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What on earth does that last sentence have to do with ANYTHING? That’s what I mean by irrational - that comment totally has no bearing on the matter.

Why mention vows? It’s not like he vowed not to play music, or vowed to spend all his time praying and have no outside interests, or that he’s breaking his vows of poverty, chastity or obedience with what he’s doing.

OK, so his music isn’t aimed to bring people to Christ. Fair enough. Many priests and religious have outside interests - they study astronomy (Copernicus being one), teach English literature, grow roses or what have you. St John Bosco did circus tricks, Pope John Paul was an actor and keen athlete, St Therese of Lisieux performed in plays in the convent.

One priest of my acquaintance took the lead in a local production of Fiddler on the Roof since he had a great singing voice and was a good actor. One of the nuns who taught me in school also performed in the local Philharmonia Choir.

They may not pursue these interests with the avowed aim of bringing people to Christ by doing them, sure, but they ARE human beings, they ARE allowed (in fact most religious are ORDERED) to do things that normal people do - things other than pray - with their time. And those pursuits CAN be secular in nature without in any way interfering with their primary vocation as a priest or religious.
 
AnotherFriend33 said:
Look, haven’t you thought for a while that if Father Cesare Bonizzi would pray the rosary and would ask our Lady for help bringing young people back into the Roman Catholic Faith he would certainly have much better results than making a world tour with his band?

Here you can see that the power of prayer can not be taken for granted, and a Priest he is surely better at praying than he is as a Heavy Metal Singer. His intentions are good, there is no doubt about it, but the adequacy from his method can be argued. Protestants may not have a problem with reverends playing in Bands like Stryper, but I am not protestant, I am Roman Catholic.
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Just so you know, my brother-in-law, a lapsed Catholic, has been deeply touched and affected by the music of Fratello Metallo. I find it unbelievably arrogant of you to assume that his ministry is not touching lives and bringing people to Christ. And to assume that he does not pray because he is involved in a music ministry is mind-boggling. So do you think priests who are involved in other styles of ministry don’t pray either? What is your skewed world like–people can only do one thing? So a priest is either praying OR ministring, but not both? Now that just isn’t reality. I shudder to think what your opinion may be of the priests on TV programs!

Have you not heard about the new evangelization that Pope John Paul the Great promoted? I suggest you look into it before criticising God’s precious priests any further.
 
CatholicSam said:
Have you not heard about the new evangelization that Pope John Paul the Great promoted? I suggest you look into it before criticising God’s precious priests any further.
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Ok, please send me a link where I can review it. I will not comment anything more on this thread until then, and if I find myself wrong I will admit it here.

Peace.
 
I hope he’s aware how close the hand gesture he uses is to a common satanic gesture… The gesture Brother Bonizzi uses is essentually the same as the ASL sign for “I love you”, but the “El Diablo” sign is nearly the same, and it’s regularly used by metalheads. A lot of fans might not know the difference, possibly resulting in a lot of mixed messages.

I don’t know if he speaks English, but I think I may write him an email just in case.
 
I gotta download me some of his songs, ASAP! Anyone know where to find them??

Come to think of it, heavy metal ultimately has its roots in Catholicism. Didn’t a lot of early metal bands take some of their inspiration from Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”? I’d say metal has come full circle, thanks to this monk.
 
I read the article that was linked above. There is nothing in what Brother Bonacci is doing that is in conflict with the Rule of our Holy Father St. Francis.

As long as he remains within the boundaries of the holy rule, there is not going to be a problem with the Franciscan Order.

By the way, the article has made a mistake on one detail. Maybe this is why it’s confusing to some people. Brother Bonacci IS NOT a monk. He is a Capuchin Friar Minor (Franciscan Friar). Friars are not monks. They don’t even live a monastic life. They live an itinerant life. Another way of putting it is that they are contemplatives without walls. Our own Holy Father Francis never gave up his music. He continued to sing and write music until his death. Most of his music was in Italian, not Latin chant. It was usually forms of praise called Laudas in Italian. Today they are a genre of Italian music.

The Capuchin Franciscan Order was founded by St. Francis of Assisi and its profession is to observe the gospel in obedience, without property and in chastity. Its mission is to convert Catholics. Its way of life is to live as brothers to each other for the rest of their lives.

There is nothing in his interest in heavy metal music that is in conflict with any of the above.

I admit that its interesting to see a man his age interested in heavy metal. I’m much younger and I can’t stand the noise. I disagree with him that Gregorian chant and heavy metal are the same. But that’s not a capital sin or a sin at all. Actually, they are two very different genres of music.

That’s my contribution as a Franciscan myself.

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
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