While Pope John Paul II took the stage with Bob Dylan and hobnobbed with the likes of Bono, his successor takes a different view of secular music.
In a 2000 book, 'The Spirit of the Liturgy," new Pope Benedict XVI extensively discusses the role of music in worship.
The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, known as a conservative, writes that pop music "is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a cult of the banal."
Rock music fairs no better. It is the "expression of elemental passions, is another kind of "worship" altogether.'' At rock festivals, he notes, "it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship."
The points were made to distinguish music used in Catholic rituals from other forms of expression. Ratzinger notes that "liturgical music must lift man's heart to Christ rather than plunge it into intoxicating sensuality."
Pope Benedict XVI is an accomplished pianist and reportedly has a deep affection for Beethoven.
