(The) REV. GEOFFREY KERSLAKE is a priest of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Ottawa.
In order to understand Catholic thinking about music, dance and the liturgy we need to remember that all sacred arts in the liturgy are meant to glorify God and to draw us deeper into the heavenly reality that we experience in our liturgy.
In helping us to discern what expression of music is appropriate for the liturgy we have three criteria: “beauty expressive of prayer, the unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments and the solemn character of the celebration” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1157).
Because music is intended to help orient us towards God, if it serves as a distraction or if it becomes the focus itself of the liturgy, it has lost is true purpose. The music that praises God most appropriately is derived from Sacred Scripture and from liturgical sources (CCC1158). These criteria do not mandate any single genre of music, but common sense tells us that some musical genres do not inherently point us to God, but rather focus our attention elsewhere. Conversely, sacred music like Gregorian chant, because it exists solely as sacred music and nowhere else, has a natural or inherent ability to orient us towards God because we associate it only with worshipping God in the liturgy.
For an interesting, self-critical take on contemporary worship, have a look at this video – http://www.vimeo.com/11501569. It is done by North Point Community Church, a contemporary church itself, founded by Charles Stanley’s son Andy Stanley.