ROME (CWNews.com) - A rock concert in Rome this past Monday featured Pope John Paul II, Lou Reed, and Alanis Morissette as the headliners -- although they weren't on stage at the same time.

    The Vatican had given its approval to the concert promoting the Jubilee Year theme of debt relief for Third World Nations and the Holy Father celebrated a Mass before the concert for the more than 600,000 people in attendance. Afterward, he left before the slate of musicians -- most of whom are not known for their Christian moral values -- took the stage. Reed was best known in the early 1970s for his crossdressing and drug use, while Morissette recently starred as God in the film Dogma, which was panned by many Catholics as blasphemous.

    Vatican officials said the May Day concert should not surprise observers. Bishop Fernando Charrier, the organizer of the Vatican May Day celebrations, said: "Do not be astonished. Rock is an expression of today's world, particularly dear to the young. All (forms of) human expressions, when they have dignity, command respect. I do not believe that there has ever existed a (form of) rock that is diabolical."

    He added, "At most I think that there can be some diabolical personalities, because real human beings can do good, but also bad. The concert is not a way to consecrate rock, but a chance to to give space to a form of expression widely shared."