A Spanish priest's church is overflowing with visitors since word of his flamenco dancing has spread across the region.
Father Jose Planas Moreno, known as Father Pepe, has been dancing during mass for years, but has recently become an internet sensation.
Father Pepe leads the Nuestra Señora del Carmen Catholic Church in Campanillas, a district in Málaga, Spain. Although attendance is falling in churches throughout Spain, Father Pepe's church has lines out the door during services.
The Telegraph reported that the number of Spaniards identifying themselves as Catholic dropped eight percent over the past decade to only 72 percent of the population. The number of Spaniards who have never attended church rose from 7.5 percent in 2002 to 48.6 percent in 2012.
Historian and demographer Neil Howe attributed the decline to a generational shift away from religion in the 1970s, which some countries have yet to recover from.
"Very simply, a large share of Spanish Boomers (born roughly in the same years as in America, perhaps a few years later) simply stopped going to church when they married and formed families in the 1970s and 1980s," he wrote on his blog.
"To some extent, American Boomers did the same thing–but then they came back to churches later on, and most Xers and Millennials followed them. In Spain and Portugal and Italy, Boomers didn't come back, and younger generations never followed them back."
Father Pepe's popularity is attributed to his unique praise dance – a Castilian folk dance called Sevillanas. Influenced by Flamenco, Sevillanas involves rhythmic foot work, spinning, and raised arms. Father Pepe performs the dance in the church aisle during mass, and is often joined by female worshippers. He said that dancing is in his blood.
"Something happens when I dance," he told Diario Sur, a regional newspaper. "I love it. It brings me closer to God."
Father Pepe, 66, also said that he danced in front of Pope Saint John Paul II at the Vatican in 1997 to celebrate the beatification of Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla. Malla is considered the patron saint of the Romani, and Father Pepe – whose mother was Romani – joined 3,000 others in dance.
"They say if you pray singing it's worth two prayers, so if you pray while dancing it must be worth three," he said.
