A new St Pat’s: the wait is over

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
7 December 2003

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A new St Pat’s: the wait is over

The five-metre high stainless steel crucifix in the new cathedral

By Marilyn Rodrigues

It was a triumphal climax to an eight-year wait, when more than 800 people joined Cardinal Edward Cassidy - representing Pope John Paul II - in a joyful Mass to dedicate the new St Patrick’s Cathedral at Parramatta last Saturday.

The Mass was concelebrated by the Bishop of Parramatta, Bishop Kevin Manning, the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, and other bishops, as well as priests of the Parramatta diocese.

Access to the new 800-seat cathedral is via the old cathedral, which was gutted by fire in February 1996 and has now been redesigned into a Blessed Sacrament chapel.

[On the Sunday, 1400 people crammed into the cathedral and adjoining chapel for the 11am Mass.]

Three hymns were commissioned from Australian composers for the dedication Mass - a new Mass setting called Light of the Nations, plus Lord God, in the simplicity of my heart and Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

Cardinal Cassidy said the new cathedral is not to be seen as a monument to visit “because of its architecture”. This is “God’s own house”, he said.

Bishop Manning said that the new cathedral represents the “greatest single change” in church buildings since Vatican II.

“In previous times it was the building that determined liturgical worship,” he said. “Today it is the other way around.”

The objective of the new cathedral is “to return to the idea of a church structure that can be a true house of God, to the extent that it serves the local assembly in which God dwells”, he said.

The pews in the new cathedral face each other rather than the front of the church.

Design architect Ronaldo Giurgola, who designed Parliament House, Canberra, likens the cathedral complex to a city in which older and newer buildings carry on a dialogue rather than exist in opposition.

Light is the key theme of the new Parramatta complex, which cost $14 million and includes a cloister, parish hall and the original presbytery.

The Governor, Prof Marie Bashir, State Premier Bob Carr- and the Federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, were among the congregation at the dedication Mass.