Hans sent me this link to a story from the Canadian Globe & Mail. It’s about a monk who’s decided he rather like metal – he cites Megadeth and Dream Theatre as favourites – so he’s decided to form a band and play live. This year he played at Italy’s Gods of Metal festival for the third time and he’s racked up about 150 gigs so far.
His name’s Friar Cesare Bonizzi, he’s 62 and he’s a Capuchin Monk. Why do I like him so much? This quote from the article:
“I never did it to preach, I did it because music is beautiful … If I want to convert people, I simply want to convert them to life, to welcome life, to enjoy life,” he said.
“I am religious and I am a priest but I am not doing this to convert people to Christ, to faith or the Church, but for them to try to understand life, to be able to enjoy it. Nothing more.”
Good on him. He’s a prime example of a religious person I could not only tolerate, but really like. Good on him and I hope the new album does well. In the meantime, here’s a vid of him from the GOM festival.
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