[Image: Padre Guilherme / Facebook]
What started nearly two decades ago as a novel way to fundraise for his cash-strapped and in-debt parish has become a globetrotting career for 49-year-old Portuguese Catholic priest Guilherme Peixoto.
The DJ priest’s novel way of spreading the gospel began after the COVID-19 pandemic forced his parish church to close, and since then the crossfading cleric has been streaming live DJ sets to fans worldwide every weekend. Within a few years, the parish’s debts were paid off and church renovations were completed.
“The people are dancing with sentences from ‘Laudato Si’. It’s like a small seed, and the Holy Spirit will do his work.”
Pretty soon Peixoto was taking professional DJ classes, and most parishioners had come to love the priest with a wicked beat.
But the priest really exploded onto the global stage when the organizers of World Youth Day in Lisbon asked him to “wake up the pilgrims” at 7 AM before Pope Francis’ open-air Mass in August 2023.
“With electronic music, I can take some message, I can be where young people are.”
So successful has Peixoto’s ‘outreach’ been, that the Pope even blessed his headphones at the Vatican during a visit in 2019.
In fact, it was another document from Pope Francis, urging clergy to go find “the lost sheep,” that pushed Peixoto to work harder on his music skills so that professional-sounding sets could become a way to reach those who might never step inside a church.
One of his most memorable sets however was the Christ the Redeemer Rave in Brazil on 16 January, where the padre dropped phat beats at the feet of Jesus.
Faithless said God is a DJ, so we’re sure he approves.
Peixoto plans to continue to improve his DJ skills to bring a Christian message to audiences who might have never heard of Jesus — while remaining committed to all regular parish activities.
[Source: Euronews]
