In Monday’s RNS report David Briggs writes about the mass appeal of “Friday Mourning,” a Catholic rock band: The five band members, in T-shirts, jeans and shorts, some without shoes, some with cigarettes between fingers, drape themselves across cheap plastic, wicker and metal chairs and wooden porch rails outside the two-story home in a working-class neighborhood. On the street, in front of a scraggly lawn, is “Amelia,” the 17-year-old rusty van that carries them to gigs in the region. Fairly typical surroundings for a group of young men trying to make it as full-time musicians. Except for the large wooden cross standing on a table in front of the fireplace. Friday Mourning, as these five Catholic students or recent graduates of nearby Franciscan University call themselves, is part of a growing movement that believes sacred music can take many forms. It is important, band members say, for religious groups to be open to reaching young people with musical styles they can appreciate.

A sidebar looks at The Fest, a Catholic music festival: Play that funky music, church boys. Play it with Christian artists like the rockers Sanctus Real and five-time Grammy winner Steven Curtis Chapman, and Catholic youth-not always accustomed to hearing their generation’s music in parishes-will come by the multitudes. Unlike some nondenominational groups, the Catholic Church and other mainstream religious groups have been slower to integrate contemporary Christian music into parish life. The Fest, a local Catholic music festival that was the brainchild of the Rev. Robert Stec, was started six years ago as a way to engage and evangelize young people.

Greg Garrison writes about EWTN‘s 25-year anniversary and reports that the network’s founder is ailing: More than 5,000 people turned out at an arena Saturday (Aug. 12) to celebrate the 25th anniversary of EWTN, the global Catholic satellite TV network started in Alabama by an energetic nun. Mother Angelica, who founded EWTN in the garage of her Irondale monastery on Aug. 15, 1981, has been in poor health and could not attend the festivities. “She’s not feeling well,” said Mother Mary Catherine, mother vicar of the Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration in Hanceville. “She’s tired. She stays in her room most of the time.”