The Catholic Herald reported on the backlash received by the parish priest of the St Laurent Church in Paris over his decision to allow a sound installation at the church as part of the city’s ‘Nuit Blanche’ festival, despite widespread accusations of profanity.
Nuit Blanche is Paris’s major free cultural festival and transforms the city into an open-air theatre for one night, similar to the Noche en Blanco in Málaga.
Much of the backlash came from Catholics who feared the increasing repurposing of sacred spaces for secular and ideologically charged events. Meanwhile, Fr Paul Dollié, parish priest at St Laurent, issued a statement to the French Tribune Chrétienne in which he insisted the installation – Sous la peau du ciel (‘Under the Skin of the Sky’) – in no way disrespected the church and contained “no elements contrary to the faith”. He added: “I saw that this work was respectful of the place, that there were no blasphemous remarks among the recorded messages.”
Similar events have been emerging in cathedrals and large churches in the UK, but more typically in the form of silent discos, particularly in our great cathedrals, and very often to raise money to keep the building open. At Canterbury Cathedral, for example, the running costs are nearly £11m a year, or £30,000 a day. At Guildford Cathedral, however, having been built only in the 1940s with more modern materials, the costs are closer to £1m a year to run. Nonetheless, Guildford invited 1,000 people to attend a silent disco in two sessions on a Saturday evening, ending at midnight. And then at 7.30am the following morning, worshippers arrived for the first service of the day.
“On Saturday, people came to enjoy a space that would be otherwise dark and quiet,” Matt O’Grady, the cathedral’s CEO said. “By generating an income in this way, we can keep the cathedral open. We simply wouldn’t be able to provide a sacred space without our commercial activities, including markets and music events in the cathedral.”
But not everyone is pleased. As the number of UK cathedrals signing up to host such events reaches at least 14, a petition opposing the “desecration of our historic holy places” has obtained some 2,400 signatures. And in Canterbury, a prayer vigil was held outside the Cathedral during a silent disco.
It would be interesting to know if that view is shared by people here in St George’s. We make our sacred space available for concerts but we do it so as to raise money for the church and help our financial position to remain viable. Sometimes we are called upon to make difficult decisions, and it is rarely good vs bad, and more often good vs better.
As we prepare to welcome Dolly Parton and Shania Twain tribute acts to our church in July, do people have concerns about the repurposing of the building, or does the long term benefit, of securing our financial future, override any shorter term misgivings? If so, then please book your ticket to our next concert here.
Read the Partis story in the Catholic Herald here.
Picture above: Église Saint-Laurent (façade ouest) – Paris X by Mbzt. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.