Portuguese Catholic priest and DJ Guilherme Peixoto, performs throughout a live performance in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 11, after a Lebanese courtroom rejected a request by a gaggle of Christian spiritual figures, who filed a petition looking for a ban to the live performance saying it violates the church’s teachings. AP-Yonhap
BEIRUT — Ravers danced and swayed to the loud bass at a well-liked evening membership within the coronary heart of town of Beirut. It was one other sold-out Saturday within the get together capital of the Center East.
What was totally different this time was the DJ on the helm. Earlier than placing on his headphones, he had been main a Mass at a Lebanese Catholic college.
Guilherme Peixoto, higher often known as Padre Guilherme, is a priest from a village in northern Portugal who preaches by day and events at evening.
To the 52-year-old, DJing is a solution to categorical his religion, ship a message of peace and coexistence, and join with the youth.
“The Psalm asks us to reward the lord with all devices, so now you’ve got this new instrument that got here that’s digital music,” he mentioned earlier than holding Mass on the Saint Joseph College of Kaslik.
Padre Guilherme has been a worldwide sensation for months, performing all over the world to giant audiences and amassing a following of two.6 million on Instagram.
The priest broke onto the worldwide stage after his performances at World Youth Day in 2023 earlier than Pope Francis’ open-air Mass, and one other that includes Pope Leo in 2025. What began as a solution to fundraise for native church buildings has grow to be an important new solution to evangelize.
Lebanon was in some ways a pure cease on his tour.
Portuguese Catholic priest and DJ Guilherme Peixoto, performs throughout a live performance in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 11, after a Lebanese courtroom rejected a request by a gaggle of Christian spiritual figures, who filed a petition looking for a ban to the live performance saying it violates the church’s teachings. AP-Yonhap
Christians make up round a 3rd of Lebanon’s 5 million folks, giving the small nation on the jap coast of the Mediterranean the most important proportion of Christians within the Center East. Maronite Catholics are the most important Christian group.
Pope Leo XIV visited Lebanon as a part of his first official journey overseas in November.
The priest’s first present within the tiny Mediterranean nation was not with out controversy, nevertheless. Eighteen folks, together with Christian spiritual officers, despatched a petition to the nation’s judiciary calling for his present to be cancelled, calling it an insult to the religion. The petition was rejected by a decide, and the membership the place he carried out mentioned the venue can have safety presence and no spiritual symbols can be displayed, to keep away from offending anybody.
“For these which are objecting, if I, for them, I’m form of scandal for them, I (am) sorry in fact. And I solely can ask (them) to hope for me,” Peixoto mentioned.
Earlier than his efficiency, Padre Guilherme donned the standard white gown of a priest and delivered a sermon alongside a Lebanese priest on the college in a jam-packed auditorium crammed with youth and older folks.
The reactions to Peixoto’s go to have been break up on social media.
“We who have been raised to respect the phrase of God and the sanctity of the message in all its kinds can not settle for turning religion into an leisure present introduced on a desk of alcohol,” mentioned one Lebanese X person. “I don’t consider that God meant for His message to be … diminished to a musical present with scenes of alcohol and smoke.”
Others praised the priest for locating fashionable methods to get the youth nearer to faith
“The folks attacking him simply don’t perceive how highly effective and wanted his work is,” mentioned one other X person.
By evening time, Padre Guilherme walked onto the stage at AHM nightclub to the cheers and applause of lots of of individuals. As he performed his music and swayed to the beats, pictures of the late Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II, and white doves have been projected onto enormous screens behind him.
The DJ additionally performed a tune for Lebanon and waved a Lebanese flag to the cheering crowd. In contrast to his regular DJing garb, the priest didn’t put on his cassock, the standard clerical coat worn by clergymen, as a part of the settlement with organizers after complaints about his efficiency.
Lebanon for years has confronted disaster and battle, each amongst its quarreling political teams and sects, and externally within the area. Many concern a brand new escalation between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group. Pope Leo, throughout his go to in November, referred to as for peace and dialogue within the nation and the Mideast, a message largely welcomed by the nation’s youth.
On Saturday, Padre Guilherme despatched the same message however in his personal method
“The message is all the time: look to the dance ground, you see respect, you see one thing all the time lovely … if that is potential for folks with totally different race (and) garments dancing collectively, why we can not stay like that on the earth?” Peixoto mentioned.
