Papal envoy may learn a step or two from prisoners

CEBU CITY—The Burmese high churchman sent by Pope Francis to the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) here will be treated to a rare public performance by the YouTube-sensation “dancing inmates” of the Cebu provincial jail, IEC officials said.

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, archbishop of Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar), has expressed his intention to visit the prisoners of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) in line with the Pope’s declaration of 2016 as the Year of Mercy.

Msgr. Joseph Tan, spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Cebu, said Cardinal Bo would not only meet the prisoners, but he would be treated to a dance exhibition.

Tan told the Inquirer the visit would probably take place this afternoon.

The Cardinal will also visit a vocational school in Pasil, one of Cebu’s poorest villages, said Cebu Archbishop and IEC president Jose S. Palma.

As a form of exercise, the dancing inmates, now known as the CPDRC Dancers, perform mass choreographed dances.

They danced to the tune of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which was filmed by a British TV crew and became a YouTube sensation in 2007. Lito B. Zulueta