The announcement was made Monday by the Coadjutor Archbishop of Wellington and Apostolic Administrator of the Christchurch diocese, Paul Martin.

The diocese hopes the whole complex will be completed within five years.

To fund the project Martin says the diocese is considering selling the site of the former Christchurch Catholic Cathedral in Barbados Street along with other surplus land.

The diocese will also launch a fundraising campaign to fund the project.

Martin says that raising money for the new Christchurch Catholic Cathedral will be a challenge but remains prayerfully optimistic the Cathedral Precinct Campaign will get the support of Canterbury Catholics, the wider community and the government.

He admits it will be a significant financial challenge but says he is looking to build something more traditional than modern.

"It needs to tap into why people loved the [former cathedral]. People loved the [former cathedral] because of the style and elegance."

Current plans for the Christchurch Catholic Cathedral Complex represent a 40:60 split.

$40m for a 1,000 seat Cathedral and $60m for an open courtyard, offices for diocesan officials, a garden and parking.

Martin says projections to fully restore the former cathedral were costed at $149m and this was too expensive.

During the announcement, it was also revealed that two firms have been chosen as the architects.

American firm Franck & Lohsen Architects have been chosen as the lead design team and they will be supported by prominent Christchurch firm, Warren and Mahoney.

Franck & Lohsen were chosen because they specialise in Catholic architecture with a traditional design and have built churches all over the world.

Stuff reports that Art Lohsen visited Christchurch in 2018 and Michael Franck visited New Zealand last year to present concept designs for a potential new cathedral.

Franck said he wanted the new building to feel timeless.

"We hope to design a uniquely New Zealand-style cathedral, bridging a classical style of architecture with more contemporary styles."

Martin says Franck & Lohsen came of their own volition.

Warren and Mahoney are well known New Zealand architects.

Source

• Stuff

The ground shifted when the City Council revised its CBD roading plans.

Developers - those putting up millions and encouraging growth - don't want one-way streets near their sites. Not when they were supposed to be two-way streets.

One of the many projects caught in the middle is the planned Cathedral precinct car park.

What's happening

The Council has devised a $33 million plan to make roads around Christchurch's new Te Kaha stadium more pedestrian-friendly.

Part of the plan would make Lichfield St one-way, with a 10kph speed limit between Madras and Manchester Streets.

It's thought safety is likely to improve.

Three-quarters of the 1,200 submitters supported the change of plan.

As a consequence, Philip Carter (pictured with former Bishop of Christchurch Paul Martin) and several Christchurch developers are scaling back major projects in the area, putting others on hold and threatening to pull out of the central city.

The Council is breaking promises made in earlier post-earthquake rebuild documents, they say. The developers are being left without certainty.

Carter says the documents show Lichfield St would remain two-way. The street is an "artery" for a car park which he and Christchurch's Catholic diocese are developing.

Now the Council is "tampering" with it. Making it one-way would break trust, he said. He has "deep concerns" about anything that affected traffic coming into the city.

Investors don't want to put their money into developments on one-way streets, he indicated.

The Cathedral precinct

The car park joint venture the diocese and Carter are working on is for a 600-space parking building in the precinct. Offices for youth ministry and social services staff, plus accommodation for the bishop and priests are included with the plans.

Carter says he won't be doing this if the Council's plans go ahead. (Nor will he be building planned hotels in the vicinity.)

If Carter does pull out, the Church's plans for the precinct will obviously be affected.

It's a project the diocese has been looking forward to.

When it was first announced, then Catholic Bishop of Christchurch Paul Martin said he was keen for the Cathedral - which the Carter Group has been chosen to build - to be at the heart of the city.

The precinct will be handy for the congregation, school groups and the public, with room for up to 1000 people, he said at the time.

He was pleased the precinct would stay open to the public to walk through. It would provide a pedestrian link from New Regent St to the Avon River.

Fundraising for the Church's estimated share of the development, including land and buildings has begun, to cover:

• $85 million for the Cathedral
• $11 million for the relocated St Mary's primary school
• $30 million for the diocesan share of a joint venture with Carter to the 600-space parking building.

Martin said the plan took over a year to put together behind the scenes, involving several landowners as well as the Church and Crown.

Sources

• Stuff
• Stuff

The move signalled earlier on, is part of the demolition of the old cathedral.

Bishops John Grimes, Edward Joyce and John Cunneen were moved to the mausoleum over a period of three days during May, The Christchurch Press reported yesterday.

Bishop Grimes was Christchurch's first Catholic bishop. He died in 1915.

Bishop Joyce died in 1964, and Bishop Cunneen died in 2010.

However, the purpose-built mausoleum is only a temporary resting place for the bishops.

Their remains will be moved once more when the new Catholic cathedral planned for the corner of Colombo and Armagh streets nears completion.

"The disinterment went as planned with no surprises."

"The next of kin were consulted and engaged where possible," Catholic diocese general manager Andy Docherty said.

Docherty confirmed the disinterment was managed by John Rhind Funeral Directors, who removed the bodies "carefully and respectfully, by hand."

The Apostolic Administrator of the Christchurch Diocese and Coadjutor Archbishop of Wellington Paul Martin led the disinterment ceremony over three days, May 12-14.

Presented with a massive decision, the new Christchurch bishop decided to demolish the badly damaged current cathedral.

Martin said projections to fully restore the former cathedral were costed at $149 million.

Early in May 2021, he announced the old cathedral would be replaced by a new $40 million traditional-looking cathedral and a $60 million diocesan administration centre, open courtyard, garden and parking overlooking Victoria Square in the centre of Christchurch City.

In May 2021, the Christchurch Diocese Apostolic Administrator said that raising money for the new Christchurch Catholic Cathedral will be a challenge but that he remains 'prayerfully optimistic'.

Experienced Cathedral architects, American firm Franck & Lohsen, have been chosen as the lead design team.

Renowned Christchurch firm Warren and Mahoney will support them.

Martin's appointment as Archbishop of Wellington came as a surprise to him.

At his episcopal ordination in 2018, and to much applause, he told an optimistic crowd that "Christchurch is now home".

Sources

• The Christchurch Press
• CathNews
• CathNews

The $1.8 million demolition project began in September.

Bishop Paul Martin announced in August last year that he wanted to demolish the cathedral, which was completed in 1905.

He said the building was too expensive to restore and chose to build a new one for about $40m on a site closer to the city centre.

Heritage campaigners were unable to mount a legal challenge to the demolition. Read more

The $6-million building projects both started last year.

The re-opening of Timaru's earthquake-strengthened Sacred Heart Basilica, included a mass, the confirmation of about 30 children and the presentation of four papal awards.

Sacred Heart Basilica had been closed since February 2019 for about $3.9m of strengthening and upgrading.

Later on Sunday Martin blessed and officially opened the neighbouring parish centre and sports complex at Timaru's Roncalli College.

The $2.4m parish centre and sports complex, which came in about $100,000 below budget, was started in May 2019 and completed earlier this year. It has been in use since May.

The Holy Family Parish and Roncalli College worked together to raise funds to pay for the project.

Located behind the basilica, the complex comprises covered basketball, netball, hockey and futsal surfaces, two changing rooms, two community rooms and an area for spectators.

Roncalli College principal Chris Comeau says the new complex has exceeded his expectations.

"It's fantastic and well used ... students use it at every break."

The facility is also available for community use.

Source

• Stuff
• Image: Stuff

The $1.8 million demolition project is expected to take a year and started this week with three workers salvaging two stone angels from the front of the historic building.

Catholic Bishop Paul Martin said he was sad to demolish the cathedral.

He said in a statement on Tuesday the building was still unstable.

"Even though much work has occurred over many years to remove badly damaged sections of the cathedral as part of the stabilisation process, the site remains very hazardous and dangerous."

Some artefacts will be preserved

Martin said the cathedral's angels and some stone columns would be salvaged as part of the demolition.

"But any other salvage activities will be opportunistic in nature, and subject to being able to safely access areas of the building.

This also includes the recovery of other items such as stained glass windows and plaques.

Ornate stone elements may be retained for future projects where opportunities are identified.

While it would be desirable to incorporate some of the recovered artefacts into the new cathedral, successfully merging two architectural styles from different eras into a modern building can be extremely difficult to achieve."

Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel and Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb have both called for historic treasures like a 19th Century organ, a stained glass window by artist Philip Trusttum, and the Stations of the Cross carvings by late artist Llew Summers to be saved.

Heritage New Zealand saddened

Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga southern regional director Sheila Watson said she was "saddened" to see the demolition of the significant Category 1 historic place level begin.

"We understand the Bishop and his advisors have undertaken a serious and methodical consideration of the options to restore the basilica but unfortunately have come to the decision to demolish it."

Opposition continues

Heritage campaigner Anna Crighton said she was getting legal advice on whether the demolition could be challenged.

Fellow heritage campaigner Ross Gray said a pressure group called Restore Our Catholic Cathedral (ROCC) had been formed to challenge the demolition.

The Wizard of Christchurch, Ian Brackenbury Channell, has added his voice to the opposition.

In a recent 7-part video series the Wizard revealed that his fiancee had opposed the demolition of the Catholic Cathedral.

"Now my fiancee Alice (in an alchemical marriage), who was a trustee of the Catholic Cathedral in the past, is in the thick of the fight to stop the new Catholic Bishop rushing to demolish the Catholic Cathedral on shaky legal grounds and at a time of great economic uncertainty. The pro-Cathedral is functioning very well," he said.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

A plan to merge 12 of Christchurch's Catholic parishes into five super-parishes has been given the go ahead by Bishop Paul Martin, who announced his final decision last month.

The decision was six months in the making, based on feedback from parishioners about proposals outlined in June.

The outcome is a plan for the parishes that is largely unchanged from those original proposals, although Martin admits it won't suit everyone.

"I don't discount the fact that there are some people who continue to struggle or are uncertain with the proposal," Martin's letter to parishioners says.

He also notes there was "a high level of concern for the elderly, disabled and those without vehicles and their ability to get to mass."

"It will be a priority for each of the parishes to make sure that everyone who wants to go to mass can do so."

Even taking the concerns of some about the proposed changes, Martin says he thinks most people are prepared to step into the new era.

"I believe there is a majority support and enthusiasm for the proposal outlined and a clear direction has emerged," he says.

The mergers will take effect on 31 May.

The five new parishes will be Christchurch North, Christchurch West, Christchurch South, Christchurch Central and Christchurch East.

The plan will involve building two new churches, expanding another and building a new cathedral on a block north of Cathedral Square.

Martin says he is "satisfied" the merger could be financed by fundraising campaigns and the sale of surplus assets.

"We have been very conservative with our projections to ensure this can work".

The original Catholic Cathedral on Barbadoes St will be demolished and around 8 hectares of surplus land and buildings in eight parishes with a rateable value of about $26.7 million could be sold.

Source

• Stuff
• Image: Stuff

There's more than one battle in this long saga and only one of the cathedrals will have a happy ending.

Both buildings were severely damaged by the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes and aftershocks, and both sit derelict.

The future of the Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Barbadoes St looked safe after the Bishop Barry Jones supported restoration.

Meanwhile, the iconic ChristChurch Anglican Cathedral in the city centre looked doomed after its Bishop Victoria Matthews opted to demolish and rebuild.

But several years after the disastrous events of 2011, their fates have switched.

The Gothic-designed ChristChurch cathedral will be rebuilt and its classical Catholic counterpart will be deconstructed and a new one built closer to the city centre.

The head of Historic Places Aotearoa, Dr Anna Crighton, is among the many people and groups that have fought hard to save the Anglican Cathedral in Cathedral Square.

"ChristChurch Cathedral is not only the centrepiece of Cathedral Square and our city, but it is our icon," she says. "It's in our living room here.

"It's the reason why the Anglican community was built here. So for seven years the Christchurch public have been fighting against the misinformation that it was beyond repair, that it was dangerous, they can't afford to repair it …. [that it was] an exciting opportunity to build a new cathedral and it would take too long to restore anyway."

After a bitter seven-year battle that involved the Church, the council, the government, community groups and residents, the Anglican Synod decided that the cathedral would be restored at a cost of $104 million.

It will be partly funded by the Church's insurance with grants from Christchurch City Council and the government.

Work has finally begun and it will take at least a decade to rebuild. For now, there's still a gaping hole where the pigeons get in, and the cathedral is out of bounds, surrounded by security fencing.

Just a few blocks away on Barbadoes Street is the Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Its future looked safe until a few months ago when the new Bishop, Paul Martin announced it will be deconstructed and a new one built.

It is a Petre architecturally designed building, which was known as one of the most beautifully designed cathedrals in the Southern Hemisphere. Continue reading

The group have asked that the current process be re-examined in two three-hours, or three two hour meetings - professionally facilitated and open to all - with the bishop and his team and the council of consulters.

They also want consideration to be given to an alternative plan that they have developed which they have called the Good Plan and to any other alternatives that may be proposed.

Over 100 people from throughout the diocese have attended three "Gatherings".

The group also has an email distribution list of more than 300.

After the three gatherings representatives of the group had 2 meetings with members of the bishop's team and the college of consulters.

The group agrees with:

• A dedication to and expansion of adult education.
• Full laity involvement in ministry and administration.
• Lay-led liturgies, in the absence of a priest, with trained lay ministers.
• Priests living in a community near church and community buildings, supporting, with lay ministers, a hub of smaller churches.

However, they believe that the 9 June proposal presupposes the old clerical priest based model of the church.

This, they say, resulted in the proposal to amalgamate parishes and close churches.

The implication being that some primary schools and currently fully-functioning diverse Catholic communities are disposable.

"We do understand there is a need to address low attendance and 'churches being vacant from Monday to Saturday'."

This then becomes the Mission - to train skilled, community including, religious and lay ministers in every parish in the diocese."

The Gatherings Group think the diversity of peoples, buildings and liturgies are a hallmark of New Zealand catholicism.

They say diverse buildings, small and large, are essential to sustainability and survivability.

Source

• Supplied
• Image: Catholic Diocese of Christchurch

Click here to read the full statement

The purchases are likely to be the first stakes in a larger site for a complex which may include a new cathedral.

Property and company records reveal the Catholic diocese has bought 10 vacant properties in the central city block bordered by Armagh and Manchester streets and Oxford Tce.

At 4340 square metres or nearly half a hectare, the church's new sites occupy more than a third of the vacant city block extending from Manchester to Colombo streets and adjoining the city's new Avon River promenade.

Eight of the properties are opposite New Regent St and another two on the corner of Colombo St and Oxford Tce.

The eight adjoining sites were sold to the church for $11m by Christchurch investor Ben Gough's company Tailorspace.

Sites, opposite Victoria Square and the Christchurch Town Hall, remain in the hands of Victoria Apartments Ltd.

The rest of the land on the block comprises several sites owned by the Carter Group.

This includes the derelict former PWC and the former Copthorne hotel site facing Victoria Square owned by Millennium and Copthorne Hotels.

A spokesman for the diocese confirmed the purchases but said any more information would come from the bishop when he was ready to make a statement.

The diocese announced in August it would demolish its earthquake-damaged Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, once considered by some to be New Zealand's finest building, and rebuild on a more central site.

When the decision to pull down the existing Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament was announced last month it triggered a vow by heritage enthusiasts to fight to save the building.

Christchurch Heritage Trust chair Dr Anna Crighton called it "the best and the most significant cathedral in the southern hemisphere".

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

Good healthy functioning communities small or large, with community - enabling priests and lay ministers, folk who include everyone in the mix, and allow all sorts of community lead projects to flourish, create the places where people want to come.

In these places the interface between our primary schools and our local community churches is creative and vibrant and children, young people, old folk and those in between, all have creative parts to play in the liturgy.

In his first "proposal" on 9 June Christchurch's new Catholic bishop Paul Martin said he wishes to close and sell off 13 of the 20 churches in our diocese and replace them with five, 600 seat churches, to "evangelise and bring more people" to add to our 11,600 regular Sunday mass goers plus all the Catholics and others who attend funerals, baptisms, first communions, confirmations, high days and holy days.

The 13 churches he proposes to close, include the largest, most vibrant, and most historic churches in the Christchurch Catholic diocese.

This is a major contraction of the Diocese when we are experiencing population growth in Christchurch and in the Catholic Church.

By 2028, there's predicted to be around 120,000 more people in Christchurch, than in 2013.

The proposal also assumes a shrinking Catholic Church and a shortage of priests, as in Halifax.

In New Zealand the Catholic Church has grown to be the largest Christian denomination in New Zealand, with around 492,384 people, representing 12.6 percent of the total population, according to the 2013 census.

Packed Sunday Mass at Sacred Heart Church Addington.

Our NZ dioceses have always been "the Missons" originally to French, Irish and now Vietnamese, Indian, Filipino and American priests.

There has never been and is not now a shortage of migrant priests happy to come to New Zealand.

Neither is there any shortage of folk happy to become lay ministers to work together with our priests.

Betrayal

Many folk feel betrayed.

Christchurch people have had to cope with major disasters and shocks and are in the process of developing a resilient spirit of peace.

The staunch rigid approach of the announcement of 9 June 2019 stands in stark contrast to this spirit.

• The failure to answer direct questions by Catholic bishop Paul Martin and property developer Tony Sewell at the Q and A's,
• the lack of empathy,
• the leaked half-truths,
• the secrecy,
• the small elite group who have concocted the proposed plans,
• the seeming "fait-accompli" and the lack of transparency

has shocked and dismayed many people.

Our churches are places of refuge, friendship and intergenerational memories that can't be swept aside.

The proposal will further decimate religious and spiritual heritage at a time when the people of our city are just beginning to regain our confidence.

Christchurch has already lost most of our CBD heritage.

Corporate model of Church

The model proposed is a corporate, supermarket-type, mono-cultural one - of five, 600 seat churches, and identikit 50 seat chapels with no halls by our schools.

Totally unlike the rich mosaic of community based churches, halls and their primary schools we have developed here.

The proposal is based on a dated, overseas, maintenance to mission model that would increase our car miles driven, when we in Christchurch, are developing a sustainable eco-friendly city.

On our side of town, Sacred Heart Addington, St Teresa's Riccarton, and Christ The King Burnside, located in densely populated suburbs, are our hub churches, each have a long history of community enabling pastoring.

Their priests live together in community alongside vibrant thriving communities full of a multitude of different nationalities and age-groups, with their primary schools.

St Teresa's runs as a family community church in the morning and a large university student lead community in the evening.

Questionable choices

The proposal plans to close down these 3 church hubs - Christchurch's largest, most historic and vibrant community parish churches and incur needless expense and debt, building 2 church hubs one at Hoon Hay by a petrol station and one at Sockburn on a main road in an industrial area.

Neither of these churches are in areas of dense population.

This does not reflect wise, long-term nor healthy decision-making.

As our Catholic schools have evolved from being run by religious to being run by lay people, with appropriately facilitated consensus decision making, so too can our churches.

To do this we must fully resource community-enabling training and consensus decision-making up-skilling of our students, priests local and migrant, bishops and lay ministers.

• Kathleen Gallagher is a Christchurch author, playwright and film-maker. She is a member of St Peter's Church, Beckenham.
• A gathering to talk about the future vision for our diocese, will take place at Sacred Heart Church Hall Addington on Sunday 11 August 1 - 5pm. Everyone is welcome and free childcare is available. Feel free to bring a plate for afternoon tea.

$200,000 left to the church in a will had no specific provision for restoration of the basilica. The donated total of $350,000 would be used for the planned new cathedral, he said.

In 2017 The Washington DC Catholic diocese donated $200,000 in 2017 as a "sign of solidarity".

At the time, the Canterbury diocese was considering preserving just the central part of the earthquake-damaged Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

The cathedral's $30 million insurance payout will be used to fix other damaged buildings throughout the Catholic diocese of the city including the building of a new cathedral.

The plan now is to build a new cathedral opposite Victoria Square on Colombo St.

Heritage advocates are disappointed by the decision to demolish Christchurch's Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

"We tried to get a sounding board from different people, we're not running a referendum in the end and, as the bishop, the decision rests with me," Bishop Martin told Newshub.

Parishioners are accepting of the bishops decision, calling it a "big loss" and "sad occasion".

Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel told Newshub she understands it's been a tough call for the bishop and there will be genuine sadness over the decision.

But the Catholic Church does have the legal authority to demolish the building she said.

Martin is working with engineers and safety experts to allow parishioners to attend a special event to farewell the iconic cathedral.

Source

• newshub.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• insurancebusinessmag.com
• Image: naylorlove.co.nz

But Christchurch Regeneration Minister, Megan Woods says the city needs to accept the church's decision and move on.

Woods said she had many fond memories of the cathedral having gone to school next to it, but the decision to demolish was one for the church to make.

"We do need to move on, as sad as it is, a decision has been made.

The last thing the people of Christchurch need to see is another building getting bogged down in legal wrangling."

In a pastoral letter read out in all parishes on Sunday the catholic bishop of Christchurch, Paul Martin announced decision demolish the cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

The decision was necessary because the cathedral could not pass a 12-point test set out in the notice that was issued in 2015 by CERA (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority).

A fight brewing

Despite Wood's advice, the situation is fast becoming a re-play of the prolonged disagreement over the future of Christchurch's Anglican Cathedral.

Some see the building as an architectural gem. They want to preserve it

Others want a functional and functioning place of worship.

Restore the Cathedral

Former cabinet minister Peter Dunne took to Twitter saying:

"A Canadian Anglican Bishop tried to tear down Christchurch's Anglican cathedral and failed. Now an outsider Catholic Bishop wants to do likewise to his cathedral. Will this be a similar battle & outcome?"

Heritage advocate Anna Crighton said there was outrage in the community.

She was ready to fight for the building's survival.

"Rest assured it will not go unchallenged," she said.

When asked where the money would come from for a challenge, Crighton said: "It's always easy to find money for a good cause".

Demolish and build elsewhere

Martin says the diocese has spent millions of dollars investigating the site and the building.

It has looked at more than 20 different possibilities:

"But ultimately we were unable to find a functional and financial solution."

Section 38 of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act allowed for the deconstruction of the Cathedral, in the quest to save the nave and other parts.

Section 38 also gave the Diocese the power to demolish the whole building if it could not pass the 12-point test outlined in the application.

One option was to save the nave but with a much reduced new sanctuary and no towers at the front.

To do this would cost $91m.

Martin says the resulting building would not be fit for purpose.

The second option, a complete restoration, would cost $149m.

There is $30 million set aside for the cathedral from the diocese's insurance payout is available to go towards fixing other damaged buildings throughout the diocese.

Source

• rnz.co.nz
• chchcatholic.no
• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• tvnz.co.nz
• twitter.com
• Image: John Kirk-Anderson/Stuff

Two years of death-defying earthquakes then the grief-stricken, the demolition, the dying, the rebuilding aftermath.

Followed by March 15, 2019, with 51 people dying while at prayer in the mosques, and while we are prayerfully and painfully recovering ourselves, we now have, on June 9, 2019, Paul Martin turning up with his Roman-like directions to demolish or sell off seven of Christchurch's 12 Catholic parish community churches that have managed to survive the earthquakes.

All this is not because we don't have enough parishioners in our churches.

Our parishes are full and some overflowing.

It is because he hasn't enough male celibate priests to minister to them.

He is using a North American big church heavily oil-dependent model - parishioners travelling, not the priest.

And because he can't seem to consider the practice that is common in the rest of Oceania, Latin America and Africa - in fact throughout the whole of the Southern Hemisphere, where lay ministers - married folk and women - can minister the liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion, without a priest being present, and the priest can turn up once every month or two and celebrate Mass and support them.

Maybe he sees the writing on the wall for clericalism and wants to finish it all off as quickly and painlessly as he can.

So he looks at the oldest, strongest base community parishes, churches like Sacred Heart Addington, St Teresa's Riccarton, Christ the King Burnside, strong parishes with high daily Mass attendance and university student communities and sells these churches or bulldozes them.

These communities and their attached schools have taken decades to build to the strength they are today.

You don't get rid of the places where your strength lies.

These churches and halls are our marae - the places where we gather to celebrate our births, deaths, weddings, first communions and ordinations. They are like cloaks that support our schools.

They were built with the blood, sweat and tears of our communities over generations.

Consultation?

He has not consulted with the priests, with the staff, nor with the parishioners. He simply announces his plan. He claims it is a proposal.

We are to pray and discuss it, but that his proposal will all be carried out within one year.

Our priests and staff and parishioners should have been consulted, involved and listened to, not just briefed.

Announcing a fixed plan and pretending it is a consultation, when it has been already decided upon, is the practice of clericalism at its very worst.

Shortage of priests

Currently we have 30 ordained priests in the diocese.

In 10 years we will have 12.

What about in 20 years?

In 20 years we will have four priests - if the trend continues. Something needs to be done about this.

Unlike the Anglicans, there is not a shortage of parishioners.

We need lay ministers - married people and women to be able to minister, for the Catholic Church to survive in the Christchurch diocese in 20 years' time.

Ten years is far too short a timeframe.

Knocking down churches and building a few new ones is not going to solve the long-term problem.

We need to be planning for 20, 50 and 100 years' time.

These lay ministers need to be trained and supported in ministry and in preaching and this is the place where our empty seminaries need to be putting their energy.

Working from strength

We need to work from the old strong base hub parishes and support the work the priests do there, with work by lay ministers in the surrounding churches.

In South Christchurch we want none of our four churches to be sold or destroyed.

We have had enough of death, destruction, building, selling and rebuilding.

Sacred Heart, Addington is the oldest and largest parish in our region and the safest church earthquake-wise - it is on good ground that doesn't break open or have springs or liquefaction rise up from below. (It is well worth checking the old black map of Christchurch springs.)

We suggest that Sacred Heart be our hub church.

The other three parish churches can remain having Mass celebrated once a month there by a Priest and a liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion by lay ministers on the other Sundays and days of the week if the community has able lay ministers.

We don't want more church name changes.

Name changes are not new here, they are old hat, we have had enough name and street and church and building changes to last a lifetime.

We want the emphasis to be on strengthening our communities and educating our lay ministers, not on demolishing and erecting buildings.

We want energy to go into how we can minister to one another in the absence of a priest.

We want to know how to be present to each other and to our beloved priests, who have done an amazing job in our parishes of all shapes and sizes through such a long difficult and continuing period of unrelieved upheaval.

• Kathleen Gallagher is a Christchurch author, playwright and film-maker. She is a member of St Peter's Church, Beckenham.
• First published in the Christchurch Press. Republished with permission.

The land for those parishes totals about 8 hectares and has a rateable valuation of about $26.7m.

Bishop Martin said some of those surplus sites could be sold. Read more

The proposed changes were announced at Sunday masses throughout the Diocese via a video message on Pentecost Sunday.

Parishioners have been asked to provide feedback by August 30.

The five new parishes would be Christchurch North, Christchurch West, Christchurch South, Christchurch Central and Christchurch East.

Some churches would be surplus to requirements and would close.

There will be one church in each of the Central and North parishes.

The parishes in the east and the west will each have 2 churches.

Where there are two churches parishioners could choose where they attend mass, Martin said.

The Central Christchurch Cathedral parish would be formed from a merger of the Bryndwr, St Mary's Pro-Cathedral Parishes and Te Rangimarie Maori Community and based either at the Cathedral on Barbadoes St or at a new site.

Martin says he hopes a decision on the cathedral's future will be made by mid-August.

The existing parishes of Riccarton, Sockburn and Hornby would be merged to form the parish in West Christchurch.

It would be based at the Our Lady of Victories, Sockburn site on Main South Road.

The parish in East Christchurch will be based at the St Anne's, Woolston site on Ferry Road.

This parish would result from a merger of Ferrymead and Christchurch East Parishes.

Addington-Beckenham and Hoon Hay-Halswell parishes will be merged to form the parish in South Christchurch.

It would be based at the Our Lady of Assumption site on Hoon Hay Road.

A new Selwyn parish would be based at Rolleston with a newly built church and school.

This parish will be formed from a merger of the existing Akaroa, Lincoln, Leeston and Darfield parishes.

All of those existing churches will be retained.

A merger of Waimakariri and Hurunui parishes into one new North Canterbury parish was being considered.

Some Catholic schools will lose a parish church on the same site, but in those cases, chapels would be built to ensure students could still attend weekday Masses.

Martin said his desire was to make the parishes stronger, able to last into the future, financially viable and able to be staffed by priests and parish teams so they can focus on the mission to spread the Gospel more effectively and to be welcoming to those who have not heard of Christ.

"As a new Bishop to the Diocese, I was familiar with some aspects of the diocese, but not all, so have been able to ask questions about why we do things the way we do.

Martin said that he and his pastoral team have been studying trends here and overseas and they can see, from parishes that are thriving and growing, that part of their success comes from strong leadership and a real desire to work collaboratively with the laity.

"These thriving and growing parishes are also much larger than the parishes that we have now. They have a critical mass of people, less plant, more staff and financial resources that are leading to vibrant and flourishing parishes."

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A spokesman for Woods said she "does not have the power to intervene as the rules under the Christchurch District Plan govern and enable the demolition of the Catholic basilica."

"The replacement district plan process undertaken by the Christchurch City Council was robust, including the appointment of an independent hearings panel," he said.

"The panel considered a significant amount of evidence in relation to the demolition of the Catholic basilica before making the decisions which were notified to the council and implemented in the operative Christchurch district plan."

The diocese of Christchurch was granted a section 38 notice in August 2015 for the demolition of the earthquake-damaged basilica.

A section 38 notice allows a building owner to demolish without resource consent.

The notices were granted after the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes so that damaged and dangerous buildings could be cleared more quickly.

Council head of resource consents, John Higgins, said consent would not be required by the Catholic church for demolition if the section 38 notice was valid.

A spokesman for Land Information New Zealand confirmed the section 38 notice for the cathedral was still valid, but was subject to some conditions like providing a detailed demolition plan.

Paul Martin, the Catholic bishop of Christchurch recently announced three possibilities for the earthquake-damaged basilica.

One of the options is to demolish the existing building and build a Cathedral on a new site.

A decision on the future of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch has been delayed to March or April next year.

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A spokesman for Woods said last Wednesday that formal advice on whether she could intervene to prevent demolition under a section 38 notice could be with the minister in about two days.

The church was granted a section 38 notice in August 2015 in order to partially deconstruct the earthquake-damaged cathedral.

A section 38 notice allows a building owner to demolish without resource consent.

The notices were granted after the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes so that damaged and dangerous buildings could be cleared more quickly.

The Catholic bishop of Christchurch, Paul Martin, said last week the 113-year-old Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament could be demolished under emergency powers granted to the church in 2015.

The church originally applied for the section 38 notice so they could accelerate plans to deconstruct most of the cathedral, but retain and restore the building's main space if possible.

But Martin is now considering three options. One of the options is to demolish the cathedral and build afresh on a new site.

A spokesman for Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) confirmed the section 38 notice for the cathedral was still valid, but was subject to some conditions like providing a detailed demolition plan.

In May, Martin cast doubt on the $105 million restoration budget.

"If we got it for $105m it would be a miracle," he said.

At that time he questioned the morality of fundraising $70m for the project when it could be spent on programmes like low-cost housing.

Woods attended high school at Catholic Cathedral College and has a PhD in history from the University of Canterbury.

She was a member of the Progressive Party from 1999 to 2007 and was involved in several of Jim Anderton's re-election campaigns.

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Martin said the land purchase talks were part of an assessment of three options for the 113-year-old Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament which was severely damaged in an earthquake in February 2011.

The three options are

• Demolish the cathedral and build on a new site
• Restore the original building for an estimated $105 million, though Martin believes it could cost more
• Demolish and rebuild on the same site

"If we are not going to rebuild at the cathedral site, the desire is to be based in the city," Martin said.

"If we were able to get a site that was suitable, that would make a difference to our final decision.

"There is no point saying we won't rebuild and then not being able to find a suitable new site."

The Catholic church was granted a section 38 notice in August 2015 in order to partially deconstruct the earthquake-damaged cathedral.

A spokesman for Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) confirmed that section 38 notice for the cathedral was still valid, but that was subject to some conditions like providing a detailed demolition plan.

Martin said the cathedral could be demolished under the notice if it were deemed too expensive to restore.

The church has a $30m insurance payout for the building but would need to raise any funds beyond that.

"If the funding is not available and it is prohibitive in the end, that is why demolition is an option," he said.

"Finances will certainly be an element, it is a pretty major element."

He said an option would be chosen early next year.

The cathedral is a category one heritage building.

Heritage New Zealand southern director Sheila Watson said demolition had not been presented to them as a serious proposal.

"Once again we would lose heritage, but if that is the law, that is the law.

"They have been working quite closely with us so we would expect to talk to them."

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Martin was asked by RNZ's Phil Pennington if he thought the church should start publishing the names of clergy whom it had found guilty of abusing children even when a case hadn't gone through the court.

Pennington suggested that doing so would be a way of helping other victims to come forward.

Martin replied by saying, "Yes, you may be right." But he pointed out that he didn't set the policies for the Church.

He agreed that the suggestion was something that he could take to the Bishops' Conference.

"We will again discuss the cases that are coming up, and the point that you raise we will discuss it again," he told Pennington.

Martin says there was nothing in the file indicating the church knew of O'Brien's crime between 1963 when he arrived in Canterbury from the UK, and 1976 when he was convicted in court of indecency against a boy.

Subsequent investigations, however, show he began abusing a 4-year-old boy in 1964.

O'Brien returned to the UK in 1976. Martin said the file showed that the New Zealand church told the UK church about the 1976 conviction and kept tabs on O'Brien, he said.

"In 2004 when the complaint came in here, that complaint then went to England and he was not allowed to be in ministry," Martin said.

In 1976, a newspaper report from court quotes a doctor's report saying Father O'Brien was getting treatment for "a severe psychological problem" and if treatment continued then it was "unlikely" he would offend again.

Martin said there's no evidence O'Brien abused any children after his return to the UK.

In 2008, O'Brien threatened to sue the Christchurch diocese and the victim for libel, but that did not eventuate.

He died in 2012.

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