DJ Priest Padre Guilherme Brings EDM to the Church (Full Transcript)

[00:00:22] Speaker 1: I never imagined that it was possible to mix the church with electronic music.

[00:00:30] Speaker 2: There's a nun in the front row, which I've never seen at a concert.

[00:00:38] Speaker 1: Around the world we see young ones, they are full of ideas to create something, but they don't have opportunity.

[00:00:48] Speaker 3: YouTube is how you learned how to DJ. Yes, and I like the electronic music. Really, like nothing else.

[00:00:58] Speaker 1: No one can look to this like a solution for the problems. It's important that we can use, I think, all instruments that we have, all our talents.

[00:01:18] Speaker 2: And he's just now leaving the hotel to perform starting at midnight. So he's in the car, the promoters, tour managers, not the entourage you usually see following a Catholic priest.

[00:01:32] Speaker 4: How are you feeling? What an energy. It's amazing. So then you go from here and you go in.

[00:01:39] Speaker 1: Now you rest.

[00:01:44] Speaker 2: As a former altar boy, as a practicing Catholic, I never thought I'd see this. A Catholic priest who happens to be an electronic dance music DJ. All right, it's showtime. This is Padre Guilherme Peixoto on tour, and we're with him. Hours before the concert, we find Padre Guilherme at what he considers to be the day's main event, co-celebrating Mass. A group of mostly university students fill this campus auditorium in Concepción, Chile. Some a bit starstruck by the visiting celebrity, a Portuguese DJ priest. Though Padre Guilherme is quick to redirect the focus to a higher power. If it's hard to picture some in this crowd at an EDM concert, well, just you wait. I asked a few of them afterwards, I said, what do you feel when you come to a Mass like this? And they said, the fact that he focuses on the youth, for them it feels like they're drawn into it.

[00:02:54] Speaker 1: What is happening right now? A couple of decades ago, you start work, you buy your house, you want to have a family and kids, everything was normal. Now it's almost impossible, because around the world we see young ones, they are full of ideas to create something, but they don't have opportunity.

[00:03:14] Speaker 2: He's here already. From Mass, he hurries to tonight's concert venue, where he blesses the ground. Do you know, Padre, this is my first electronic dance party. I've never been to one before. So I don't even know what to wear, but I hopefully wear all black. As Padre Guilherme heads off to prepare for the show. We find young concert goers. Thank you for the Coke Zero. Getting ready for a late night ahead. Do you think he brings you closer to the Catholic Church or to faith in general?

[00:03:48] Speaker 5: I'm not really Catholic like the majority here, but I think he brings something different, to be more open and welcoming to the young community, and I think that's something really cool.

[00:04:01] Speaker 2: And she's not alone. At least a few thousand on this night agree. There's a nun in the front row, which I've never seen at a concert, let alone an electronic music concert.

[00:04:27] Speaker 4: Has it been a good experience?

[00:04:30] Speaker 6: Yeah. We have a mini Jesus.

[00:04:36] Speaker 1: That's your mini Jesus.

[00:04:40] Speaker 6: He's like a superstar.

[00:04:48] Speaker 4: Well, he is a superstar. You see the crowd.

[00:04:51] Speaker 2: On to the next stop of the tour. You can tell, perhaps, that I'm losing my voice a little bit. That's because it was a late night. Ended around 2, 3 in the morning. Padre Guilherme and all his crew making it from Concepcion to here where we are, Santiago. This is a country where you have roughly 18 million people. More than half are Catholic. But here's the thing. Most of them are Catholic. This is a country where you have roughly 18 million people. More than half are Catholic. But here's the thing. When you go to a Padre Guilherme concert, those performance venues aren't filled with all Catholics. And they're not just all young people. Ready to go into the venue for his final night here in Chile. Final performance.

[00:05:39] Speaker 3: I'm looking at the clock because you're, what, two hours to showtime.

[00:05:42] Speaker 2: We find a quiet place backstage to get to know more about this DJ priest.

[00:05:47] Speaker 1: Since I was born, I always wanted to be a priest. But since the first moment that I remember, I want to be a priest. Priest or astronaut. Priest or astronaut.

[00:06:02] Speaker 2: He went with the path that kept him closer to Earth. With a hobby that at 51 years old still allows him to soar, even if just for a couple of hours.

[00:06:13] Speaker 1: My parents always work in a factory.

[00:06:16] Speaker 2: And yet his beginnings in Portugal, humble.

[00:06:19] Speaker 1: When I was a kid, most of my clothes were made by my mother.

[00:06:23] Speaker 2: And he credits his mom's creativity in part for his love of music, which started early.

[00:06:29] Speaker 1: 19, 20 years old. I started going to some clubs, listening to music. This is nice. And I like electronic music.

[00:06:39] Speaker 2: But as he neared ordination, he says he and the other seminarians decided to focus on one vocation, the priesthood.

[00:06:47] Speaker 1: And we decided, OK, we'll be priests. The music will finish for us. Let's sell all our sound systems, the mixers, everything that we have. You leave that behind. Yes, behind, and I start a new life.

[00:07:02] Speaker 2: The music didn't stop for long. Father Guilherme says he began to use his passion to help lift his parish church out of debt by putting on small community music festivals.

[00:07:14] Speaker 3: And this was in 2006 that everything started. YouTube is how you learned how to DJ. Yes, all the beginning.

[00:07:22] Speaker 2: In his 40s, he started taking DJ classes. The gigs got bigger and bigger, along with his following. Even getting the attention of the Vatican.

[00:07:34] Speaker 3: What do your mom and dad, what do they think of this? They were a bit shy. I see your son on the TV. OK, OK, OK. It was a lot for them to take. Yes, yes, yes. I think in the beginning, yes.

[00:07:47] Speaker 2: Father Guilherme has since launched his own record label and is now focused on growing music ministry within the church.

[00:07:54] Speaker 1: When someone on the phone, on the selfie, for me it's always strange. Is it hard still? Yes, yes. What the photo with me?

[00:08:04] Speaker 2: As we're talking, the crowd's already packed for the opener and eager for the headliner. This is the time that he also says he starts to feel the crowd. He begins to feel the energy. And this is the moment that then it kicks in, he says. I feel it like nothing else.

[00:08:22] Speaker 6: It's incredible.

[00:08:39] Speaker 2: Father Guilherme is well aware of the criticisms when it comes to performing in electronic music settings like this. But from standing where he is, up there and looking out to the crowd, he says his focus is on humanity. The soul he feels like he can reach. There's a moment every few songs where you hear a video message. This one from Pope Francis. And if you watch some of the faces in the crowd, they're just taking it in.

[00:09:14] Speaker 4: And that's exactly the moment that Father Guilherme says he looks for throughout his performances.

[00:09:23] Speaker 1: I never imagined that it was possible to mix the church with electronic music. No one can look to this like a solution for the problems. But it's important that we can use, I think, our talents to make Jesus be present on the society.

[00:09:44] Speaker 4: May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit come upon you and remain with you always. Amen.