How to motivate youth to go to church? This ‘DJ Priest’ is bringing the church to them
- Catholic priest Guilherme Peixoto’s DJ sets have become essential to his ministry in Portugal in a continent where religious practice is dropping fast
- He plans to continue to improve his DJ skills to bring a Christian message to audiences who might have never heard of Jesus
Guilherme Peixoto, a village priest in northern Portugal, has been busy this month celebrating Masses at his two parishes, presiding over remembrances for the dead – and preparing the electronic music set for his next international DJ gig.
What started nearly two decades ago as a novel way to raise funds for the local churches has become essential to the ministry of this 49-year-old Catholic priest in a rapidly secularising continent where religious practice is dropping fast – especially among young people.
“With electronic music I can take some message, I can be where young people are,” Peixoto said a few days after returning to Laúndos from playing at a large Halloween festival in Italy. “They can think, ‘If it’s possible for a priest to be DJ, it’s possible for me to like music, and festivals, and be Christian.’”
The priest broke onto the global stage when the organisers of World Youth Day 2023, held in Portugal’s capital Lisbon, asked him to “wake up the pilgrims” at 7am before Pope Francis’ open-air Mass in August.
Peixoto, who is also a military chaplain, had been preparing for the sets he would play with the Portuguese Army’s symphony band in late October, but he put everything aside and started prepping for the huge event only a few weeks away.