LISBON (LifeSiteNews) — Scandal has continued to emerge from the recent World Youth Day, as a “DJ priest” performed a half-hour session of techno music beside the altar in the build-up to Pope Francis’ Sunday Mass.
Participants of World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon were awoken early to the sound of techno music, coming from the platform used for the Pope’s final Mass. Father Guilherme Peixoto, a Portuguese priest, stood next to the altar platform and played a set of specifically arranged music as early as 7 a.m., while priests and bishops arrived and vested early for the Mass, which began at 9 a.m.
Padre Guilherme, a ‘DJ priest,’ brought the #WYD2023 all night vigil to an end as he performed while bishops assembled for Sunday Mass with #PopeFrancis.@Pontifex blessed Guilherme’s headphones during a 2019 visit to the #Vatican.
Among his…1/2 https://t.co/UHKJiAmHoo— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) August 8, 2023
His performance awoke sleeping WYD participants, who attested to the bass sounds vibrating through the ground. But the performance has been met with widespread strong criticism from Catholics online.
Highlighting a previous performance the priest gave, the U.S.-based Coalition for Cancelled Priests questioned his participation at World Youth Day, stating: “What is going on here??? This is wrong on so many levels.”
Speaking about his WYD performance Peixoto stated that:
Music can have a message, it can have no message, it depends on the perspective of who makes it. I also try to make my mark as a priest, as a Christian, as a Church. May music itself, for these days, be a journey of joy, of peace, of harmony, of spirituality, of faith, and that they have fun and in the end take something with them in their hearts.
The 49-year-old Peixoto is renowned in his native Portugal as a DJ, with his interest in techno and rock music beginning at an early age. He even formed a “pop rock band” with four other seminarian friends, and continued his increased attachment to being a DJ as a priest.
It is partly due to his prior performances that such prevalent criticism of his involvement at WYD has arisen, with a 2022 event in particular being raised as an example of his unsuitability for WYD.
The concert – held on Friday May 13, 2022 – featured devil horns as part of the stage furniture. Members of the crowd were dressed as witches, with others also sporting devil horns as headdresses.
Male and female flame-throwing jugglers also joined Peixoto on the stage, in various stages of undress.
The event has been defended by some, who argued that it was simply part of a traditional Portuguese festival supposedly to ward off demons. The festival, “Sexta 13,” is held in Montalegre, which is described as a “capital of mysticism.” Every time Friday occurs on the thirteenth day of a month, the festival is held, resulting sometimes in multiple celebrations a year.
According to a promotional write-up for tourists about the Halloween-themed event:
The highpoint of the evening is up to the priest who will make the traditional ‘queimada’ – a drink made with ‘aguardente,’ lemon, apple, cinnamon and sugar. The ‘Queimada,’ they say, has the power to clear oneself from all the evil in the body (the ‘aguardente’ sure has the ‘power’ for it.)
Peixoto’s participation in the festival, including his own performance that featured immodestly dressed adults in an event portraying demonic elements, has been sternly condemned by concerned Catholics.
“This is a Catholic priest leading what looks like a devil worship event,” wrote author Kennedy Hall, while Father Meikle argued that “they celebrate the corruption of All Hallows Eve (Vigil of All Saints) in the same way they defile the Holy Mass and the administration of Holy Communion.”
They celebrate the corruption of All Hallows Eve (Vigil of All Saints) in the same way they defile the Holy Mass and the administration of Holy Communion.
A celebration of death: party as you go down down down… The enemy is not content to trick you into mortal sin, he wants… https://t.co/QhfdMxPAET
— +D.E. Meikle ❤️🔥 ☧ (@FrDEMeikle) August 8, 2023
Peixoto’s performance at WYD comes after he met with Pope Francis in a private audience in November 2019, during which he asked the Pontiff to bless the headphones he uses during his performances.