THE cost of restoring the city’s Catholic cathedral has nearly doubled and Bishop Michael McKenna has asked parishioners to dig deeper.
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When restoration works on the Cathedral of Saint Michael and Saint John were first announced, the cost was $3.5 million, but on Sunday he revealed the cost would now be $6.5 million.
“The breadth of work is greater than initial expectations,” Bishop McKenna revealed.
“One of our problems in this part of Bathurst is that we’ve got water underneath and rising damp and salt damage.
“We want to set things up so that the external repairs we make won’t just be damaged away over the years by water and salt.”
He took the opportunity at the annual dedication of the cathedral to plead with the congregation for their support in ongoing fundraising for the restoration works.
“I thought that that was a good opportunity to talk about the big project that we are in the midst of which is restoration of the cathedral,” he said.
“[Also] to encourage everyone to be a part of it both through financial contributions, but also through joining the little group that has been working very hard and participating in various ways so that we play our part this time. The longer we wait, the more it will cost.”
The cost hike comes just a few years after the Bishop’s residence on upper Bentinck Street was renovated at an estimated cost of $780,000 in 2012.
While the funds needed for the restoration have almost doubled, Bishop McKenna said fundraising made up less than one third of the amount needed.
He said Cathedral Parish and the remainder of the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst would each provide $2,349,588 for the works, with the remaining $1,806,000 to be acquired from local fundraising.
“Just as in any parish, the Catholic people of the parish look after their church so the people of the Bathurst parish will be contributing to that,” he said.
Bishop McKenna said the cathedral was important not just to the local Catholic community.
“This is the oldest Catholic cathedral in NSW, and one of the oldest in the country,” he said.
“As well as being a house of worship for the Catholic community, it’s also a very important part of the history and streetscape of Bathurst.
“Like all old buildings, as time goes on, it needs a lot of care and there have, in former years, been more temporary repairs made, but they didn’t get to the heart of the problem.”
Bishop McKenna said local and state governments have also contributed funding towards the restoration.
