Malaga mass goes Flamenco

The battle to encourage parishioners to go to church has been a long one, but one man, Jose Planas Moreno, has come up with a novel new way to attract members to his church.

A priest, known as Father Pepe, delivers his mass whilst dancing sevillanas, a form of Flamenco, in the aisles of his church, the Nuestra Señora del Carmen church in Campanillas, Malaga, watched by a packed congregation. So popular is his sermon delivery, he often has queues forming outside the doors for people hoping to attend a mass with a difference.

Female parishioners even get a chance to dance with 66-year-old Father Pepe, who performs in traditional garb of white cassock and gets on down with his congregation.

Local residents are so proud of their priest; they have taken to uploading his routines onto YouTube, which have gone viral across social networks.

Father Pepe told local newspaper, Dario Sur, that his mother was a gypsy; he has Flamenco in his blood:

“Something happens when I dance, I love it. It brings me closer to God.”

Father Pepe has even performed in front of the late Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1997 and he was part of a celebration of around 3,000 gipsies who danced to at the beatification of the very first Romany saint, Ceferino Gimenez Mallo, a Spaniard who was killed during the Spanish Civil War for defending a priest.