Meet Padre Guilherme (Fr. Guilherme Peixoto)
You wouldn’t expect to see a Roman collar under a lieutenant colonel’s uniform, framed by big black headphones, while a bass-heavy remix of the Super Mario Bros. theme drops for thousands at a major EDM festival. But that’s the vibe with Padre Guilherme Peixoto, a Portuguese Catholic priest whose unlikely path from village parish to global stages has become a living example of going to the margins and meeting people where they actually are.
His story is a case study in modern evangelization and a challenge to our assumptions about what holy work can look like…
From Parish Debt to a Beat
It started small. In the mid-2000s, Fr. Guilherme’s parish in Laúndos was weighed down by renovation debt, and the community was tired of bake sales. He tried something different: karaoke nights and rock sets from his laptop. The debts got cleared and something unexpected began.
Later, after serving as a military chaplain in Afghanistan, he trained formally as a DJ, sharpening what had started as a side project for his parish. What began as a fundraising trick turned into a second language for connecting with people.
When COVID-19 closed churches, he went online with weekly livestreams. Mixing electronic beats with short messages of encouragement, he reached far beyond his village. Those sets made international headlines and introduced the world to “DJ Padre Guilherme.”
A Priest in the Booth And Still at the Altar
At World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, he was asked to “wake the pilgrims” before the Pope’s Mass. At dawn, he dropped a set laced with lines like “Do not be afraid” and “todos, todos, todos” (everyone, everyone, everyone) to hundreds of thousands of dancing young people. Hours later, he was back in Laúndos saying Mass and officiating weddings. The DJ booth never replaced his parish life rather it runs alongside it.
Mixing Messages Into Music
Fr. Guilherme’s sets aren’t just club tracks. He often layers in snippets of papal speeches, lines from Laudato Si’, or phrases like “don’t be afraid.” At a Halloween festival for 30,000 people, he grinned afterwards: “People were dancing with sentences from Laudato Si’. If I wasn’t there, it would be none. It’s a small seed.”
Fr. Guilherme argues that nightlife doesn’t have to mean chaos. Done right, it can be a safe space where people come together without losing their values. And in 2019… His headphones were blessed by Pope Francis, a small but telling moment that showed how seriously he takes this unusual path.
Why He Matters (Even If You Don’t Like Techno)
He’s reaching people where they are. Not everyone walks into church, but they might scroll a livestream or step onto a dance floor.
He’s not playing a role. He hasn’t left priesthood for performance; he’s brought performance into his priesthood.
He sparks bigger questions. In a country where many young people are drifting from religion, he’s showing one way to open conversation.
If You’re Just Hearing His Name
Check out his World Youth Day set here for the energy.
Then watch his now-famous Super Mario remix here at Medusa Festival.
For those more curious about the backstory, his parish’s Ar de Rock nights here show how this all began, with neighbors who wanted to pay off a building and ended up dancing together.
What to Take Away
You don’t have to love EDM to see why this resonates. At its heart, it’s a story about making use of what you know… Music, humor, or skill, and putting it to work in ways that connect with people.
As he once put it:
“If it’s possible for a priest to be a DJ, it’s possible to like music and festivals and be Christian.”
This story isn’t really about a priest who DJs. It’s about someone who took what he already loved, and used it to connect with people who might never step into a church. From small karaoke nights to global festivals, he’s shown that music and faith don’t have to live in separate worlds, that sometimes the most powerful way to reach people is simply to meet them where they are, without pretense.
Whether you see him as a cultural curiosity or a creative bridge, his journey raises a question worth asking: how might we use our own everyday skills, passions, and quirks to build connection, community, and hope?
What do you think? Can music, nightlife, and faith really belong in the same space?
Have you seen creativity open doors for conversations that tradition alone couldn’t?
Thanks for reading.
Charles - Aquinas Academy.
Awful