A former bordello and music hall owned by one of Casanova's mistresses is perhaps an unlikely site for one of Britain's oldest Roman Catholic churches, St Patrick's, which sits amid the bright lights and fleshpots of London's Soho.
"It is not a conventional parish," observes Father Alexander Sherbrooke, who has overseen a 14-month, £3.5m project to restore the church and rid it of the damage caused by damp, dry rot, urban pollution, incense and candlelight. It reopens this week with a specially composed Magnificat from James MacMillan and a mass from Cardinal George Pell, who is flying in from Rome for the occasion.
The traditional nature of the celebrations – vespers and canticles – highlights the contrast between the orthodoxy of St Patrick's and what lies outside it.
Sherbrooke says: "You get a knock on the door and it can be someone who is successful in business, someone who wants a sandwich or someone caught up in the sex industry. We leave our SOS prayer line calling cards in telephone boxes – where you might see other services advertised.
"One man who called said he was a pimp and wanted to break out of his occupation but that it was too lucrative for him to leave. Do we just accept the way people are? People get into ruts they find it difficult to break out of. We can say, as Christians, that God can and does intervene." » | Riazat Butt | Monday, May 30, 2011
