By Bridget Spinks
A hum of excitement reverberated around the Cathedral as anticipation grew for the biggest event in 90 years for Bunbury’s Catholics.
People were filing in for up to 90 minutes before the event even started. The Diocesan Choir and the Bunbury Catholic College (BCC) choir waited in the upstairs gallery. Twelve more students from BCC and a first-year Perth seminarian who grew up in Bunbury – Michael Scardaccini – waited underneath ready to serve at the historic Mass.
Still more BCC students were out the front of the Cathedral and in and around ushering and welcoming the guests.
At 5pm, when the dedication ritual was set to begin, there was enough natural light flooding in through the windows to ponder the 14 Biblical scenes that contemporary Australian artist Robert Juniper, 82, had brought to life on digiglass.
These images, accompanied by their scriptural reference, were reprinted in the booklet, as were explanations of the Rite of Dedication, the hymns and ceremony script for the evening.
Once Bishop Holohan and the clergy had processed in to the entrance Psalm Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord, Joe Northover, a representative of the Noongar people who had grown up in Collie and attended St Brigid’s School and St Edmund’s College before they merged to form Collie Catholic College, gave the traditional Noongar blessing.
“My old people, I call upon you now to come and sit with us to celebrate this house of God in which we sit,” he said.
Papal Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto passed on the message of Pope Benedict XVI and his apostolic blessing on the Church in Bunbury, invoked through the Patronal intercession of St Patrick.
In his message, the Holy Father recalled the invitation he made to the Church in Bunbury at the beginning of the reconstruction efforts to see the rebuilding of this new Cathedral as “signs of hope and trust in the Lord”.
“He encourages all faithful of the diocese to renew their dedication to the Lord, aware that God’s temple is holy and you are that temple,” the Papal Nuncio said, relaying the Pontiff’s message.
Project manager John Ogilvie, architect Marcus Collins, builder Dan Perkins and artist Robert Juniper then each presented the Bishop with a symbolic item: the plans, the keys and a design of one of the windows. This represented the official handing over of the Cathedral, which Bishop Holohan accepted on behalf of the Bunbury diocese.
Bishop Holohan then proceeded to the baptismal font where he blessed the water which was then used to sprinkle and cleanse the walls of the building, the congregation and the altar.
“May God, the father of mercies, dwell in this house of prayer. May the grace of the Holy Spirit cleanse us, for we are the temple of His presence,” the Bishop prayed.
Preaching on the Gospel about the tax collector Zaccheus’ encounter with Jesus that led to a personal transformation, Bishop Holohan spoke about how the Cathedral would be a place to experience Christ’s peace and power and he gave several reasons to celebrate.
“The first reason we’re celebrating the dedication of this Cathedral is because we know that worshippers in this Cathedral, if they repent and believe, will have experiences of Jesus that will change their lives,” he said in the homily.
The Cathedral stands as a sign of Jesus Himself, the prelate said, and the experience He offers all people living now and in the future in this diocese for their lives.
“Through celebrations of the Mass, as well as through sacraments and prayer, worshippers who repent and believe will have experiences of Christ guiding them through life and through problems,” he said. Once a believer repents and believes, the peace of Christ will gradually affect their personality and behaviour, he said.
“A person who grows in Christ’s peace is growing in their capacity to love as Jesus loves,” he said.
The second reason the dedication of the Cathedral is being celebrated is as a place where people will find the peace of Christ no matter who they are or what the stage of their lives.
The Bishop also said that St Patrick’s Cathedral stands to reflect Christ’s teaching on love, which contradicts “many values that are adopted today”.
“Secondly, it stands to reflect the commandments as Jesus taught them, which contradicts the many relative views of morality today.”
After the homily, the Bishop called on the congregation to kneel and cantors chanted the Litany of the Saints, uniting the Church militant with the Church triumphant in the prayer of dedication.
Then, Bishop Holohan interred the relics of St Irenaeus, St Thomas a Beckett, St Monica, and St Mary of the Cross into the altar. The builder Dan Perkins sealed the aperture.
With dusk falling, the natural light in the Cathedral was beginning to fade as the Bishop proclaimed the Prayer of Dedication.
Then Bishop Holohan, wearing a linen apron and joined by Cardinals Pell and Rosales, anointed the altar, symbolising Christ; while the Bunbury Vicar General Fr Tony Chiera and another priest of the diocese anointed the walls.
A pot of incense was brought forward, placed upon the altar and lit. Incense began to billow up and outwards filling the sanctuary with perfume and symbolising the sacrifice of Christ rising to God the father.
As the choir sang the Psalm, Lord may our prayer rise like incense in Your sight; may this place be filled with the fragrance of Christ, priests of Bunbury diocese incensed the walls and the congregation as well.
The next step in the ceremonial dedication was the vesting of the altar. A procession of representatives of the diocesan community approached the altar and gradually vested it with linen, seven candles and a Crucifix. They placed floral arrangements at the foot of the altar.
The candles on the altar and the
candles around the walls of the Cathedral were ceremonially lit and gradually light again filled the house of God; the light representing the light of Christ.
This was followed by the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and Christ truly became present – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – under the appearance of bread and wine.
After Communion, Bishop Holohan inaugurated the Blessed Sacrament chapel.
He carried the Blessed Sacrament through the Cathedral around to the chapel of reservation, off to the right hand side of the sanctuary, while the choir sang the hymn, Humbly We Adore Thee, Christ Redeemer King.
Fr Nicandro Lim spent five months preparing the detail of the ceremony, which was carried out smoothly.
Before the final blessing was given, the Governer of Western Australia, Ken Michael, officially opened the Cathedral Precinct.
But before this formality took place, Bishop Holohan made a speech in which he recalled the journey towards the new Cathedral since the 2005 tornado caused such serious damage to the 1921 sacred edifice that it ultimately had to be demolished.
He said he would never forget the constant stream of people who came up the hill in pairs or in small groups day and night for three days, telling their children and grandchildren about the weddings or funerals they had attended in St Patrick’s.
It took an hour and 40 minutes to demolish the old edifice, which drew a crowd of onlookers from surrounding shops and houses which turned out to watch the event.
The Bishop then recounted the way the new Cathedral had come together.
He told of how the now-retired Bishop of Parramatta, Kevin Manning, had made available all the decision makers involved in the restoration of their Cathedral.
He told the congregation of how widespread community consultation took place.
“There was a general consensus for a building that mimicked the old Cathedral but at the same time was clearly a contemporary building,” he said.
From the Catholic community consultation, he learned that the community wanted to “gather around the altar” and that “many wanted a sense of transcendance and atmosphere conducive for prayer”.
The architect Marcus Collins was headhunted. He provided stringent selection criteria for choosing the builders and many couldn’t even be considered because they didn’t have the range of projects to demonstrate the variety of experience, the Bishop said.
The prelate then thanked his brother Bishops for their support and encouragement. He thanked the diocese and Religious Orders for their financial support.
He thanked the donors who made financial contributions, in particular Anglican Bishop David McCall who sent the first donation two weeks after the tornado damaged the old Cathedral.
He thanked the patrons of the fundraising campaign and the fundraising committee, the diocesan finance council, the West Australian Carpenter Government and the Australian Howard Government for providing $2.5m and $5m grants respectively for natural disaster relief.
He also thanked various politicians who “played roles in the overall strategy for lobbying the government”. He thanked the diocesan staff, the Bunbury parish staff, the parish finance committee, the priests of the parish.
“The project has been so complex that it could only have been pulled off with a team effort. The role of the diocesan staff within the team has been wonderful,” he said.
The Bishop mentioned Bishop Peter Quinn, his antecedent, who died during the project in 2008.
“While he made it clear he was delighted not to be vested with the responsibility, his support and encouragement has been invaluable and we miss him,” he said.
The Bishop then thanked the four key people who brought the project together: Marcus Collins, “the visionary architect”; Robert Juniper, “the extraordinary artist”; Perkins Builders, “the ones who made things happen” and John Ogilvie, the project manager, “who has lived and breathed the project with me since the day of the tornado”.
Bishop Holohan noted that Mr Ogilvie has taken a share in the big picture as well as the smallest detail.
“John at all times has shared in the faith dimension of the project; what the project is really about; the project is not ultimately about restoring a building we lost in Bunbury, it’s not ultimately about history, it’s about the place of God, house of God, place of worship,” Bishop Holohan said.
The prelate also thanked Fr Lim for preparing the ceremony, the servers, the musicians, the parish choir and Bunbury Catholic College.
“This has been a community effort,” he said.