The Catholic Church's dislike of rock music is nowhere more obvious than in a new musical written by Monsignor Marco Frisina, a successful composer as well as being an expert in Church music and liturgy.
His stage representation of Dante's classic work The Divine Comedy uses different types of music to accompany the story of a man's voyage through the realms of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.
No prizes for guessing where he puts rock music.
"The Satanic dimension of rock music expresses the laceration and the deep pain of Hell better than any other sort of music," said Msgr Frisina.
"If it is not Evil itself, it is the expression of Evil".
The 52-year-old composer, who has provided music for several religious dramas shown on Italian state TV, said that for his stage version of Hell he had chosen an especially "aggressive" rock sound that bordered on Heavy Metal.
By contrast, the scenes in Purgatory are set against a calmer acoustic background of Gregorian plainsong and those in Paradise are accompanied by simple melodies hinting at purity and beauty.
Msgr Frisina, who directs the Lateran University chapel choir in Rome, said that Dante's epic is about "a man's search for love" and the music in his stage version reflects his progress towards his goal.
The recently finished work, entitled The Divine Comedy: The Opera, is soon to enter the rehearsal phase. At the moment the author is selecting the 250-strong cast.
There are plans to record a CD of the show in May and to take it on a tour in November, starting in Rome, and then going to Milan, Florence and maybe other European cities.
The money it generates will go towards building new churches in Roman suburbs, where Msgr Frisina said there is a need for "places of prayer".
Frisina's dim view of rock music is shared by much of the Catholic Church, including Pope Benedict, who said when he was a cardinal that it was no more than the "expression of elementary passions".
On another occasion, coming out of a mass in commemoration of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music, he said that Heavy Metal music contributed to spreading a "diabolical and Satanic message".
A lover of Beethoven and Bach, he is also unimpressed by pop, which he called a "cult of banality".
According to Msgr Corrado Balducci, a renowned Devil expert and the author of a book on Satan, a number of famous rock stars - including Mick Jagger, Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne - actually belong to Satanic sects.
He, along with many others, also claims there is a strong link between rock music and numerous teenage suicides.
But not everyone in the Church agrees. About 1,000 people attended a rock concert held outside the basilica in the French pilgrimage town of Lourdes on New Year's Eve.
The concert was given by the American Christian rock group Exo in a bid to "bring the faith out of church" and had the active support of the local bishop.
