Who Said a Catholic Priest Can’t Dance? Graceful Garba Moves by Fr Crispino D’Souza goes Viral
- Who Said a Catholic Priest Can’t Dance? Graceful Garba Moves by Fr Crispino D’souza-the Rector of Don Bosco High School, Matunga-Mumbai dancing at the all-faith ‘Dandiya Dhamaka’ goes viral.
- “True Holiness does not mean a flight from the world; rather, it lies in the effort to incarnate the Gospel in everyday life, in the family, at school and at work, and in social and political involvement.
- Catholics should have the strength to make a change in each one’s own life as a new life in Christ via the gifts of faith, hope, love.” –Pope John Paul II
Mangaluru: ABCD- Any Body Can dance- and for that matter, even a Catholic Priest who not only preaches/Sermon’s but also can DANCE- and this story is about a Catholic Priest who happens to be the Rector of a Catholic Institution showed some of his graceful moves, shaking his hips and body during a Garba celebration held at their school campus.
And this priest simply delighted the watchers with his graceful Garba moves, which has gone viral and has been already viewed by thousands of viewers.
Meet Fr Crispino D’Souza-the Rector of Don Bosco High School, Matunga-Mumbai, whose video dancing at the all-faith ‘Dandiya Dhamaka’ has gone viral, and many Christians have come forward to laud his gesture. The Don Bosco grounds in Matunga were delighted by an unusual sight on Sunday, 14 October, when the Rector in his flowing cassock, gracefully swayed to the tunes of a traditional garba. The setting was an all-faith nine-day ‘Dandiya Dhamaka’ organised by the shrine of Don Bosco, Matunga. In the meantime, St Peter’s Church, Bandra-Mumbai had also held similar event to foster ties with other communities Praising Fr D’Souza’s enthusiasm, Godfrey Pimenta, member, Bombay Catholic Sabha (BCS), said, “It is a good gesture on the part of the priest in fostering new relationships with our brethren from other communities.” While Fr D’Souza was unavailable for comment, Fr Frazer Mascarenhas SJ, parish priest, St Peter’s Church, said, “Our church has been making attempts to build bridges of understanding and collaboration with people of other faiths living within our parish area – with the guidance of a committee comprising members of other faiths.”
As per sources, Fr Mascarenhas, who was involved in organizing the Bandra event, said the multi-faith committee had decided to hold a cultural festival to bring together people from all faiths on the occasion of Navratri. “A dandiya dance and an inter-cultural food festival were suggested. Simultaneously, the social outreach cell of the parish, which trains differently-abled children every Sunday, also proposed a dandiya dance. The two proposals merged into the holding of the Dandiya Dhamaka – a purely cultural festival, learning the movements of the dandiya and the garba,” he said. Fr Mascarenhas stressed that there was no religious connotation to the event, except a general effort to overcome evil with goodness, disharmony with harmony and collaboration – which is the theme of the Navratri festival – a theme that is also very close to the heart of every Christian, he said.
He added that St Peter’s parish believes “the building up of the kingdom of God cannot avoid borrowing the elements of human cultures” – as stated clearly by Pope Paul VI’s 1975 document, ‘Evangelii Nuntiandi’. About 450 people from different religious faiths, including differently-abled children and their families, came together to celebrate this shared heritage of all Indians. The experience of harmony and fellowship of all the participants was evidence that such cultural celebrations are indeed useful in overcoming stereotyped prejudices and building unity and collaboration among the varied peoples of our land of India,” Fr Mascarenhas said.
Dolphy D’Souza, former president, Bombay Catholic Sabha and an ardent reader/friend of Mangalorean.com speaking to Team Mangalorean over the phone said, “Fr D’Souza has shown wonderful, inter-religious harmony in action, that too with the cassock. His dance steps were very good.
He is far ahead of the times. I thank him for leading from the front. You know the thing I like about this priest is that, although he is a Holy Man to be sure, he is a normal person. He has hobbies and interests just like everyone else. And that includes dancing. And it was nice to see him having fun. Nothing provocative at all, just bobbing around ”
Yet another Bandra resident Anil Joseph speaking to media had said: “Multitudes of our non-Catholic brethren visit Bandra’s famous Mount Mary’s church feast and fair to celebrate the birth of Mother Mary in September. Similarly, Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Jesus, and its ensuing celebrations, are organised by many commercial outlets in Bandra, and people of all faiths enjoy them. So drawing a parallel, the initiative by the churches’ multi-faith committee and social outreach cell to have a dandiya dance event for people of all faiths to commingle and enjoy each other’s traditions should be viewed in the same vein.”
In conclusion, in my perspective, Yeah I think it’s okay, dancing in and of itself is not a sin, people in the Bible danced, it’s more the manner in which a person dances that’s the question. Clean innocent dancing is fine but nasty or suggestive dancing and dancing that mimics dirty acts and stuff, no way! Wild out of control dances are not right either, but traditional Indian dances like the Garba/Dandiya are fine. Something like the Electric Slide or the robot is fine or something similar but not as old as those dances but you get the idea.
I used to love the Electric Slide. Hats off to Fr Crispino D’Souza! I am hoping to see the Rector of a local Catholic Institution here in Mangaluru dance to a Biala or a Bollywood tune?
Watch the Priest’s Dance:
The rector, however, is not the only member of the clergy to indulge in a bit of celebratory dancing when the occasion arises. Here is a group of priests dancing along with members of their church to a Malayalam song.
With inputs from Mumbai Mirror