Bishop Robert Barron on Monday sharply criticized London’s historic St. Paul’s Cathedral after it entered a new partnership with a nightclub company, saying the planned concert series risks diminishing the cathedral’s identity as a sacred place of worship.
According to The Christian Post, the Church of England has come under significant criticism since St. Paul’s Cathedral signed a multiyear deal to stage concerts inside the landmark building with Fabric, a nightclub company that had its license revoked about a decade ago following two drug-related deaths.
Although the cathedral has collaborated with Fabric in the past, the newly announced agreement has triggered a much broader wave of controversy, drawing attention well beyond the United Kingdom.
St. Paul’s is part of the Anglican Church, not the Roman Catholic Church, but Barron — one of the most prominent Catholic bishops in the United States — weighed in with an extended social media post condemning what he described as a misuse of the cathedral.
“Word has just come down that St. Paul’s Cathedral in London — the second most important church in the Anglican world — has imitated Canterbury Cathedral in permitting ‘raves,’ nightclub-like entertainments, to take place in its confines,” he began.
Barron also took aim at arguments offered in support of the decision, writing, “The usual reasons for acquiescing to this have been trotted out: reaching out to the young, trying to get with the times, etc. But this development simply shows that the leadership of the Church of England has lost any sense of the crucial distinction between the sacred and the secular.”
At the heart of Barron’s objection is the idea that sacred spaces are meant to stand apart from ordinary secular life, drawing worshippers away from the everyday and directing their attention toward God.
“Accordingly, in the properly sacred space, one is lifted out of the conventional and introduced into the numinous. This is why Christian cathedrals are filled with images of the saints and angels and why their interiors are meant first to disorient us and then to reorient us toward the divine,” he wrote.
“The contemporary West is, quite literally, the first culture in human history that is in danger of collapsing the sacred into the secular, or better, losing any sense of the difference between the two,” he added further. “This is doing enormous damage, especially to young people, whose lives have been flattened into a preoccupation with money, worldly success, and material things. The Church indeed should go out into the secular space to find those who have wandered away from God, but it should then lead those wanderers back to the holy.”
He concluded, “Having ‘raves’ in the nave of one of the most sacred spaces in the Christian world is, I’m sad to say, another sign of our pitiful surrender to ideological secularism.”
According to the BBC, the events held at the event venue will be concerts rather than raves.
“Under the partnership, Fabric will be the cathedral’s exclusive partner for such events until 2030. The first concert is due to take place on 29 October, although the artist has not been announced,” the BBC reported. “Fabric co-founder Cameron Leslie called the deal ‘an extraordinary and unexpected coming together of two very different parts of London.’”
The BBC quoted Sandra Lynes Timbrell, the cathedral’s director of visitor engagement, who expressed hope that a “carefully curated programme of exceptional concerts” would draw people who otherwise had not visited the cathedral.
The controversy mirrors a 2024 dispute at Canterbury Cathedral, which hosted sold-out 90s “silent discos” that critics mocked as a “rave in the nave.”
More recently, Canterbury cathedral featured the “Hear Us” art installation, using large stickers simulating graffiti, reportedly inspired by working with “marginalised communities and a team of skilled artists to create vibrant handwritten literature responding to the question: ‘What would you ask God?’” The project was conceived by poet Alex Vellis and curator Jacquiline Creswell.
Fox News Digital reached out to Saint Paul’s Cathedral and did not receive an immediate reply.
“I’m really gratified by the overwhelmingly negative reaction to this development,” Barron said to Fox News Digital. “It shows that Christians still have some fight in them. And one might ask the question: would something similar ever be permitted in the largest Mosque in London?”
While cathedral leaders argue secular events help attract younger generations, some young believers say church leaders are misjudging what youth actually want.
Catholic actor David Henrie recently told Fox News Digital that he sees young people turning away from secular trends and seeking out traditional faith.
Henrie noted an uptick in youth attending traditional Latin Mass services in the United States specifically because they are searching for a clear contrast to modern culture.
“I’ve seen it coming. I was one of those people who was not living a Christian life and then suddenly found the world was completely empty and was searching for something other worldly,” Henrie said. “That’s why I think you’re seeing kids flock to the faith right now. It’s because they’re tired of the world.”
“[T]hey want ‘Lord of the Rings Catholicism,’” Henrie said. “You know, they want bells, smells, ancient expressions of the liturgy. That’s where the young people are flocking right now. That’s why you’re seeing the Latin Mass booming.”
Catholic leaders across the US have reported sharp increases in the number of adult converts.
A recent Gallup poll also found that 42% of young men now say religion is “very important” in their lives, a 14-percentage-point jump from the previous year.
Fox News’ Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
