Welcome to ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’: Liverpool Cathedral in All its Glory

The New Religion expressed architecturally…

Welcome to ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’:
Liverpool Cathedral in All its Glory

image: Shutterstock (trabantos)

As we take a break from building our new topical page on ‘Pope Leo XIV’, it’s time for another post showcasing a horrendously ugly Novus Ordo church.

Today’s specimen is the metropolitan cathedral of Liverpool, England. Its official name is Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, although among locals it is also known, more accurately, as “Paddy’s Wigwam”.

On the official cathedral web site we read: “The Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King is a dramatic icon of faith, architecture, and human endeavour. An awe-inspiring landmark on the Liverpool skyline that you will not want to miss.” No question, there is something rather dramatic about the whole thing, and we can even agree that it constitutes an awful landmark of sorts, a veritable eyesore that is hard to miss for anyone.

The following images give enough of a glimpse of this English ‘Roman Catholic cathedral’:

image: Wikimedia Commons (David Iliff); license: CC BY-SA 3.0

image: Shutterstock (Robert Harding Video)

image: Wikimedia Commons (Chowells); license: CC BY-SA 3.0

Needless to say, the interior of the place isn’t exactly edifying either:

image: Wikimedia Commons (David Iliff); license: CC BY-SA 3.0
(To view detail, you can open a very large version of this image here.)

image: Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral by Arthur C Harris (Wikimedia Commons); license: CC BY-SA 2.0

It won’t come as too much of a surprise that regular Sunday ‘Mass’ attendance at this “awe-inspiring landmark” is pretty sparse these days. Even the 11:00 am ‘Mass’ on Easter Sunday 2024 wasn’t exactly packed, as can be seen here, although for Easter 2025 it was a bit better.

Architecturally, this travesty of a Roman Catholic cathedral was perpetrated by Sir Frederick Gibberd (1908-84). The bishop who gave the green light for the construction of the monstrosity in 1962 was Archbishop John C. Heenan (1905-75). Upon completion in 1967, the cathedral was consecrated by (‘Arch’-)Bishop George A. Beck (1904-78). The consecration ceremony took place on Pentecost Sunday, May 14, 1967.

The following two videos show scenes of the event (one of them also includes footage of the planning and construction of the hideous edifice). Who knows what sort of a Mass was offered there, but considering it was 1967, it was probably the so-called ‘hybrid Mass’ (utilizing elements of the 1962 quasi-traditional Missal of John XXIII and also of what would become the full-blown 1969 Novus Ordo Missae of Paul VI):

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Then there is also a video of the current cathedral interior, if you can stomach it:

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By the way: If you’re looking for a neo-Gothic architectural marvel in Liverpool, there’s always the Anglican cathedral.