The President of the Croatian Bishops Conference has warned the country’s public of satanic influences in the music of Gregorian, a band from Germany scheduled to perform in Osijek on 20 October."Gregorian is a satanic group that hides behind Christian titles, while all the while debasing Christian religious and cultural heritage and the teachings of the Catholic Church," the statement issued by Djakovo-Osijek Archbishop Marin Srakic says.
The archbishop accuses the group – which performs Gregorian-chants inspired versions of pop and rock hits – to have, as part of its repertoire "renditions of songs from explicitly satanic bands."
"One of their albums is titled 'The dark side of the chant'," the statement says.
The reason why the Church decided to come out with the statement ahead of the concert is because it believes that "many confuse Gregorian’s music with the music of the Benedictine monks, who made a successful album of Gregorian chants."
The band's representative Mike Heisel says the accusations are badly researched and simply not true.
"We do not know where this information comes from and who is responsible for it," Heisel told Croatian Times.
"In 2009 Gregorian was invited by the Vatican for a Reconciliation Concert in Israel. Over 1,200 mainly young visitors were thrilled by our performance on 13 May 2009 at the Amphitheatre of Bet She'an," he said.