Is it a liturgical abuse to have a Rock 'n Roll band in the Church sanctuary?

[A.Pelliccio]

I’m a huge metal head . . I live for the heavniess lol. That and good ol rock and roll has no place during the mass. It takes away from the solemity and sacredness of the sacrifice of the mass. Now Rock and Roll could be used in general worship or gatherings outside of church. I personally dont like any sort of worship with the drums and guitar but as long as its not during the mass I can tolerate it.

 

[Roche42]

I enjoy rock music as well…on my own time, not on God’s time. As then Cardinal Ratzinger said, there is a big distinction between pop music today, and classical, baroque, or romantic music of earlier days. Music today is mass produced and made to please the lowest common denominator, not written for the sake of the glory of God and his beautiful creation. I’m not saying that some rock musicians don’t have this in mind, but the medium itself exists to simply please the masses.

I know that one of my professors at college recently had a son going through confirmation classes. He chose, however, to attend the College masses instead of his Lifeteen masses because he did not like the rock music. His reasoning was that if you need to make Church “cool” and “flashy” than what you are doing is bringing people to Church for the wrong reasons, just following the banging drums. The Lifeteen coordinator would not allow him to be confirmed and he ended up having to go through RCIA with the College Campus Ministry.

I am a young person who enjoys rock music as much as the next person, but it has no place in the mass. Its very nature takes away from the sanctity and holiness of the event. There’s my two cents. God bless.

 

[Roche42]

MarthaMartha:

Yes – and wouldn’t the music of historic composers have been the “pop” music of THEIR time? If Mozart truly behaved in public the way he was portrayed in “Amadeus,” one can imagine the church fathers banning his music from their sanctuaries.

As I said in my above post, I think there is a fundamental difference between “pop” music today and the music of earlier days. Even if we do grant your point, people in the 18th Century and before still had an idea of which music was profane and which music was sacred. The profane was fine for operas and concerts, but not for Mass, the church was the domain of the sacred.

 

[alterserver_07]

Not only distracting, but not the best music for church either.