The cathedral in Hill St, Thorndon, has been closed since 2018, and the money will go towards restoring and earthquake strengthening the building.

The $8.5 funding will create almost 300 construction jobs.

The archbishop of Wellington Cardinal John Dew said the money would enable them to not only complete the strengthening to a high standard but allow for base isolation as well.

"We thought we would never be able to do that, but we decided that we would apply to the shovel ready project."

The church had independently raised $3.3 million so far, and the additional $8.5m brought them closer to their goal of $16m.

"This project is ready to go right now," finance minister Grant Robertson said.

"The restoration is expected to take about three years and once complete will see this Category 1 Historic Place once again available for the Wellington community to use."

"The cathedral is not only widely used by the Catholic congregation but also by the public as a performance space because of its globally acclaimed acoustics.

It is also a tourist attraction because of its architectural merits," Robertson said.

In May, it received a one-off contribution from the Wellington City Council's Built Heritage Incentive Fund.

The funding came from the $3 billion tagged contingency set aside in the Budget for infrastructure.

There had been a cathedral on the side since 1851, even before Parliament was built across the road.

The original cathedral burnt down in 1898.

The new one opened in 1901, not as a cathedral, but as a parish church.

It was established as the cathedral in 1983.

The community had been using St Theresa's in Karori and the smaller chapel on the site for weekday mass.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• mcshwellington.org
• Image: Supplied New Zealand Catholic Bishops

His body was found at his Mulgrave St apartment, near Parliament, on March 2.

When his body was found, police also found a newspaper, a Bible and Mr Grant's cat's ashes in an urn.

The cathedral parish offered to have the funeral service at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, as Mr Grant lived in their area, even though it is thought that he did not attend Mass.

Funeral director Simon Manning said " . . . [T]he priest in charge, Father James Lyons, said why don't we combine it with Sunday Mass and try and engage their parish community with a little bit of reality about how people live and how they die."

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"If Jesus was here today why wouldn't he come back as an All Black?" asks the Anglican Dean of Wellington Frank Nelson. Why is it that images of Jesus always seem to to show him belonging to another age? The renaissance artists did not hesitate to depict Him dressed as a man of their times.

The porteños, as the people of the citizens of Buenos Aires are known, are 90% Catholic and the main city cathedral is a magnificent building. In one ornate alcove stands a statue of Jesus that all Portenos know as Jesus Christ of Football Players, as every championship year the national team comes here to pray before heading overseas to contest the soccer World Cup.

Argentina won the Cup in 1928, but has not been able to repeat the victory since, hence the need for solemn prayer.

Nelson says the purpose of an icon in St Paul's was to make people think about one of the central beliefs of Christianity - that God, in Christ, became human.

• Buy statues of Jesus playing sport on Catholic Shoppe (Sorry no rugby ones)
• Watch an interview "Jesus comes out of retirement to coach Fantasy Football" - YouTube
• He played League too!

Source

• Capital Times
• The Wanganui Chronicle
• Have a look at orignal image