GREEN VALLEY, Calif. — As a mother of four, Karen Turner appreciates contemporary Christian music as a pleasing alternative to the sometimes-unsavory offerings currently topping the pop charts.

But Turner, of Green Valley, Calif., also worries about the potential long-term impact of non-Catholic Christian music on her 10-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter.

“I don't want to compromise their faith,” she said. “I want something [to listen to] that does not contradict Church teaching.”

The contemporary-Christian category, she knows, is overwhelmingly dominated by evangelical Protestant performers.

She also needs to know: That paradigm is shifting.

Until recent years, Catholic music distributors primarily geared their offerings to the tiny liturgical-music marketplace. Today the leading contemporary Catholic music distributor, Heartbeat Records, based in Donnellson, Iowa, offers CDs from more than 50 contemporary artists.

The growth of the category is not limited to the United States. In Europe and Latin America, Catholic performers headline music festivals nearly every month. One of the largest, the Song of Songs Festival, is held in Poland annually at the end of June.

“I feel [the growth] is mostly due to the Holy Father's love and attention to the youth, and the increase in Catholic television programs oriented to youth,” said Heartbeat chief executive Susan Stein.

Unity Award-winning Catholic musician Greg Walton views his contemporary Catholic rock music as a ministry.

When he's not teaching theology full time at Father Ryan High School in Nashville, Tenn., Walton performs approximately 50 concerts per year, playing at camps, confirmation retreats, diocesan youth rallies and parish concerts.

“Teens are in such a fragile state regarding holiness,” Walton said. “They are going the world's way. God's heart pours out to young people. Through my music I try to encourage them to plug into Christ, the Church and its teachings.”

Walton recalls his encounter with one teen-age girl whose story shows the power of music to change lives: “My wife and I had played a concert and spoke about abstinence and my conversion. A year later, we went back with my band to the same location. While there, a girl told me, ‘I was at the first talk that you gave. I'm a cocaine addict. I've been clean for six months and have been trying to clean up. I wanted to thank you.’ That is the crux of what my music is about.”

Hidden Talents

Artists and recording executives agree that an unprecedented opportunity is opening up for contemporary Catholic music. The challenge is getting the attention of the vast potential audience.

“Young people don't go into Catholic bookstores,” Walton pointed out. “So how do we reach them? It's a catch-22. Radio stations don't want to play you unless you're in the stores and stores don't want to stock you if you're not on the radio.”

One band that has been able to surmount that hurdle is a Nashville, Tenn.-based Celtic rock band called Ceili Rain. The band has had success not only among Catholic distributors but also with major Christian distributors such as Crossdriven, Lemstone and Lifeway/Providence. The band is currently negotiating with a mainstream secular distributor, Compendia, to have its records carried in stores such as Borders and Tower Records.

Like Walton, Ceili Rain also performs at many diocesan youth rallies. Most recently, the band played in Wilmington, Del., and Charleston, S.C. The band has also performed at the National Catholic Youth Convention and World Youth Days in both Rome and Toronto.

Ceili Rain differs from some of the other bands in that it does not actively proselytize.

“They bring us in when the youth just want to rock. Yet the adults want them to do it in a way that isn't harmful,” explained lead singer Bob Halligan Jr.

Halligan also said he thinks contemporary Christian music has had a domino effect on Catholic music.

“I get the feeling that the Catholics and evangelical Protestants are infecting each other more than we all realize,” Halligan said. “The increased enthusiasm among Catholic youth for matters of faith … is somewhat attributable to seeing their friends attend contemporary Christian music concerts. I really believe that there are ways in which the two sides can complete each other.”

Other industry insiders aren't so sure.

“The biggest problem for Catholic artists is finding a stage,” Heartbeat executive Stein said. She told of a recent Catholic youth congress in Miami that had hoped to bring in the contemporary Christian band Jars of Clay.

“If you're having a Catholic event, you want to send the youth away as better Catholics,” Stein said. “You can't do that if the people presenting do not know the faith.”

Eventually, the band backed out and Stein was able to send two Heartbeat groups to the event. She noted that, at the end of the congress, the event organizers said, “We didn't know we had this kind of talent in the Catholic Church.”

The Catholic Key

Unlike contemporary Christian music, Catholic music automatically gets assigned into one of two distinct sub-categories — liturgical and nonliturgical. And never the twain shall meet.

“In the beginning, we found that there was a fear that contemporary music might replace liturgical music,” Stein said. She said such fears are unfounded.

“Contemporary music is aimed at the person on the street,” Stein said. “It's merely a tool of continual evangelization that can open a person up to the enjoyment of traditional worship music. It is not meant to replace but enhance.”

Heartbeat was the first company to embrace contemporary Catholic music nearly 19 years ago, signing Dana Scallion, the popular Irish singer who went on to run for her country's high office in 1997.

Daniel diSilva, lead singer and songwriter for the Catholic funk band Crispin, based in Dallas, said he's encouraged to see the rise of contemporary Catholic musicians.

But he doesn't see Catholic music rising to the place of prominence enjoyed by its evangelical-Protestant counterpart — for one very good reason.

“We'll never get as excited about our music and prayer as the Protestants, because we have the Eucharist,” diSilva explained. “We have the same kind of excitement for the Eucharist. Catholic music points us toward that. If Catholics ever get as excited about praise and worship music as the Protestants do, then we will have lost something. Good Catholic music should point people to the Eucharist — and there, before Christ, the music is going to be silence itself.”

Tim Drake writes from

St. Cloud, Minnesota.