(ZENIT News / Lisbon, 13.08.2023).-Father Guilherme Peixoto is a parish priest in the municipality of Poveiro, in northern Portugal, and Chaplain of the Portuguese Army. He has 187,000 followers on Instagram and creates musical compositions based on homilies and encyclicals of Saint John Paul II and Pope Frances. He prepared and presented a sort of rave concert with techno music for one and a half million participants in the closing Mass of the World Youth Day, presided over by Pope Francis in Lisbon.
“I prepared it all to wake up the people, as if it were a hymn to God’s glory, as our life must be,” he said after making everyone dance from 7:00 am on Sunday, August 6.
Father Guilherme Peixoto chose the rave style, fast electronic music. “Music can have a message or no message, depending on the perspective of the one making it. I also try to leave my mark as a priest, as a Christian, as Church; that the music itself these days may be a path of joy, peace, harmony, spirituality, faith and that people may have a good time. And that, at the end, they may take something with them in their heart,” he said to the Portuguese Bishops’ religious news agency Ecclesia.
All those who attended Father Peixoto’s presentation enjoyed themselves and danced. The copious different nationalities expressed their brotherhood in the Faith, until they heard Pope Francis’ voice with a message of love.
Father Peixoto’s musical talent initiated in Laúndos during 2006, to collect funds for the restoration of the parish residence. The success of his first concerts motivated a brotherhood that gave him a plot of land. He gathered volunteers and founded Ar de Rock Laúndos, where families gather to listen to techno music and to collect funds to improve the church.
“I want to carry a message in another language. If I am in a church, I use a [certain] language. However, if I am in a concert hall, I use another language. In any case, I seek to show the essence of the Church and of the priest I am.”
