It can, if done correctly. The problem with the LifeTeen rock ensembles that I’ve seen is that they draw their music from a ‘praise and worship’ repertoire which is too often too Protestant in theology and too repetitive musically. Then they tend to do completely new music every week so that the only ones that sing are the band (a rock version problem of the traditional choir that sings complicated Palestrina polyphony… nice to listen to, but impossible to participate in unless you’ve been to choir practice).
A rock ensemble done correctly will have a tighter repertoire that brings in new music as well as draw from the regular Catholic hymnody repertoire. And it will weed out songs which are more for personal listening in favor of songs suitable for communal worship. I’m sure their are LifeTeen music groups that do it the right way. Unfortunately, in the beginning of the LifeTeen movement, they were advocating doing it the wrong way.
The Popes have had their share of rock ensembles singing to them at stadium Masses, especially during World Youth Day. John Paul seemed to enjoy it.
Yes, I know they’ve been present at masses where rock music was played, but that doesn’t mean it’s something they were crazy about. Let’s look at what our current Pope actually has to*** say*** about the subject. From Cardinal Ratzinger’s (now Pope Benedict)
The Spirit of the Liturgy in reference to liturgical music:
On the one hand, there is pop music, which is certainly no longer supported by the people in the ancient sense (pop
ulus). It is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a cult of the banal. “Rock”, on the other hand, 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, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe. The music of the Holy Spirit’s sober inebriation seems to have little chance when self has become a prison, the mind is a shackle, and breaking out from both appears as a true promise of redemption that can be tasted at least for a few moments. (
The Spirit of the Liturgy, pp 147-8)
Music and Logos
Not every kind of music can have a place in Christian worship. It has its standards, and that standard is the Logos. If we want to know whom we are dealing with, the Holy Spirit or the unholy spirit, we have to remember that it is the Holy Spirit who moves us to say, “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor 12:3). The Holy Spirit leads us to the Logos, and he leads us to a music that serves the Logos as a sign of the
sursum corda, the lifting up of the human heart. Does it integrate man by drawing him to what is above, or does it cause his disintegration into formless intoxication or mere sensuality? That is the criterion for a music in harmony with
logos, a form of that
logiké latreia (reason-able,
logos-worthy worship) of which we spoke in the first part of this book." (
The Spirit of the Liturgy, p 151)
It’s hard to get around these problems with rock music when trying to incorporate into the liturgy. It usually ends up turning the mass into a rock concert.
