A woman known as "the pope's DJ" had this advice for Catholic youth ministers meeting in Pittsburgh: Never, no matter how much you loathe rap or country, criticize a musician a teenager likes.

"It's not our responsibility as church people to put down other people," said Anna Scally, who brought her message to 77,000 young people at Pope John Paul II's 1993 World Youth Day in Denver.

Scally spoke at the National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry, where earlier in the day 2,500 Catholic youth ministers prayed, clapped and even stomped through morning worship in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center's largest hall.

Scally noted that teenagers typically spend 3 1/2 hours a day listening to music. "Compare that to the one hour each week they spend in religion class," she said. "I believe the church has everything that young people are looking for. But sometimes that gets lost in translation."

Only about 15 percent of popular music endorses values that are opposed to Christianity, and even those songs can be used to teach Catholic values, she said.

Each year her California-based Cornerstone Media compiles two lists of 12 songs with the best and worst values. She played a selection from her 2003 Dirty Dozen -- Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body." "He's convinced that if he can just get the girl to dance with him, it will turn into an entire night of sex," she said. "In fact, he thinks he will have all her clothes off by the end of the song."

But her audience agreed they could use that song to teach moral values."Then why are we sometimes giving workshops telling kids what to watch and what to listen to?" she asked. "What we need is to help them interpret it."

The No. 1 song on her 2003 positive countdown was the hip-hop "Where Is the Love?" by Black-eyed Peas. And Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful," she said, "should be the church's theme song to our young people."

If youth leaders talk with teens about what these songs mean in light of Catholic teaching, "they will put on their headphones and hear the voice of God because you have pointed them in that direction," she said.

Her Web site, www.cornerstonemedia.org, sells CD's that link popular songs to scripture. But youth groups should compile their own countdowns, she said.