St Monica's War Memorial Cathedral

About

St Monica's Cathedral (also known as St Monica's War Memorial Cathedral) is the cathedral of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Cairns. It is located at 183 Abbott Street, Cairns City, Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The cathedral was designed by Ian Ferrier and built from 1967 to 1968. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 August 1998. The cathedral serves as the seat for the Bishop of Cairns, currently Joe Caddy.

St Monica's War Memorial Cathedral, dedicated as a memorial to the Battle of the Coral Sea, was constructed in 1967–68. The cathedral is surrounded by the Old Cathedral, Bishop's House, St Joseph's Convent and St Monica's High School Administration Building, which together form a highly intact ecclesiastical group. St Monica's War Memorial Cathedral is the only Cathedral in Cairns, as the seat of the Anglican bishops in the region was Thursday Island, for the Diocese of Carpentaria, until it was incorporated into the Diocese of North Queensland centred in Townsville.

Cairns was established in October 1876, as a port to service the Hodgkinson goldfields. In the same year the area from Cardwell to Cape York was separated from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brisbane as the Pro-Vicariate of North Queensland. In 1884 three Irish Augustinian fathers took charge of the pro-vicariate, establishing a priory at Cooktown, and in 1885 they founded the parish of St Monica's at Cairns. An acre of land bounded by Abbott, Minnie and Lake Streets was acquired and the first St Monica's Church, a timber building at the corner of Abbott and Minnie Streets, was opened on 10 January 1886. A school fronting Minnie Street opened at the beginning of the 1890 school year - staffed initially by lay teachers, but from October 1892 by Sisters of Mercy from St Mary's Convent in Cooktown, who established a foundation in Cairns. In 1906, the Vicar Apostolic of Cooktown moved his residence to Cairns, which had eclipsed Cooktown as the principal port of Far North Queensland, and at this time St Monica's Church acquired the status of Pro-Cathedral.

The first St Monica's church and school were destroyed in the cyclone of 9 February 1927. Plans for a cathedral had to be abandoned as appeals were launched locally and in southern dioceses for reconstruction funds. Lawrence and Lordan, architects of Cairns, designed a building to function as both church and school. In the interim, mass was held at the Palace Picture Theatre, and the convent school was conducted at the Irish Association's Hibernian Hall.

Tenders for the new church-school at the corner of Minnie and Lake Streets were called in March 1927. The large reinforced concrete building, which seated 900, was officially opened on 16 October 1927 and cost nearly £9,000 to erect. The ground floor contained the school, and the upper storey housed the church, including the altar from the first St Monica's Church.

The construction of this church-school illustrated the strength of the Catholic Church in the Cairns district in the 1920s. The effects of the February 1927 cyclone, followed almost immediately by flood damage, a severe trade depression, and waterfront disputes affecting the city's building industry, did not deter the predominantly working- class Catholic community of Cairns from raising within eight months nearly £5,000 toward the re-construction.

On 8 July 1941 the Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown was raised to the status of Diocese of Cairns with Fr John Heavey (Vicar Apostolic since 1914) as the first Bishop of Cairns. At this time St Monica's Church became St Monica's Cathedral, and imposing front stairs were added to the Minnie Street facade c. 1948.

Bishop Heavey, the last bishop of the Augustinian Order in the Cairns Diocese, died in June 1948 and was succeeded by the Most Rev. Thomas Cahill. Bishop Cahill began the changeover to an administration conducted by the diocesan clergy, and from this point the number of Augustinian priests in the area declined. The majority of new priests who arrived were Queenslanders who had studied for the priesthood at Banyo Seminary, Brisbane. Bishop Cahill began extending functions and procedures in the area now that it was a diocese and no longer "missionary territory". In 1951 he welcomed the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary to Cairns, who later opened Calvary Hospital, and the Bethlehem Home for the Aged was opened by the Sisters of Mercy in 1967.

In 1958, the means of fund raising for St Monica's parish passed from the voluntary work of organisations and offerings in the Sunday collection, to the more organised scheme of "planned giving". This enabled the parish to plan ahead financially and borrow funds accordingly for particular projects. The scheme of "planned giving" was adopted throughout Queensland, and was an important contributing factor which enabled the construction and adaptation of a large number of churches during the 1950–60s to accommodate the post Second World War increase in population, and later to reflect changes mandated by the Second Vatican Council decree on the liturgy.

The construction of St Monica's War Memorial Cathedral was one of the major achievements of Bishop Cahill's episcopate. Bishop Cahill, however, never presided in the new cathedral as Bishop of Cairns. He was appointed Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese, prior to the completion of St Monica's War Memorial Cathedral, where he remained until his death in 1976. He was also appointed to the Chair of the Episcopal Liturgical Commission. The Most Rev. John Torpie became Bishop of Cairns in 1967.

Brisbane architect Ian Ferrier was commissioned in 1965 to design the new cathedral, having also designed cathedrals in Darwin and Port Moresby, both of which have strong references to the indigenous culture of their particular regions.

Ian Ferrier designed many projects for the Catholic Church throughout Queensland during his career. He graduated in architecture from McGill University, Canada, in 1952 and came to Australia in 1953 where he spent two years working in Sydney. He moved to Brisbane in 1955 to work for architect Jack Donoghue. In 1957 he received substantial commissions which enabled him to establish his own practice. Early commissions were mainly in the fields of education, health and ecclesiastical architecture, and throughout his career Ian Ferrier designed some 25 churches and chapels, as well as the cathedrals of Cairns, Darwin and Port Moresby. Ian Ferrier also played an active role in the affairs of his profession, and in 1980 became National President of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. He was awarded the Board of Architects of Queensland inaugural Architect of the Year award in 1995, and retired from practice in 1996. Ian Ferrier also designs the coat of arms for Catholic bishops in Queensland, including the Bishop of Cairns, as well as interstate bishops, universities and municipalities.

Bishop Cahill attended the Second Vatican Council, 1961–65, at which the public worship of the Catholic Church was subject to substantial revision after a period of approximately 450 years of rigidity. St Monica's War Memorial Cathedral was designed to reflect materially the changes mandated by the Second Vatican Council's decree on the liturgy, and it is thought that it may be one of the earliest cathedrals designed in an attempt to reflect these changes. Of particular note are the following:

- the altar is free standing so that the celebrant may face the people

- in place of the high altar is the bishop's chair

- the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in a small private prayer chapel to the side The baptistery is a separate structure with a circular plan attached to the northern side of the narthex, and symbolises baptism as the sacrament of entry to the church in the tradition of the Italian Cathedrals such as Pisa, Florence and Sienna. The baptistery does not reflect the changes mandated by the Second Vatican Council as the Baptismal Rites Latin edition was not produced until 1969, and the English edition in 1971. Similarly, a choir loft was constructed above the narthex, which pre-dated the changes mandated concerning the role of the choir and music in the celebration of the mass.

St Monica's War Memorial Cathedral follows the basic form of the original basilica model of the early Latin churches. Bishop Cahill requested the architect to design the cathedral with arches as a major design element; however, Ian Ferrier has said that he found it a challenge to reconcile the use of arches whilst designing in the modernist idiom. He developed a system of reinforced concrete arches along either side of the cathedral, which house leadlight windows surmounting doors to side verandahs. The side arches were designed in concert with a vaulted ceiling; however, due to cost constraints, the vaulted ceiling was eliminated and a flat soffit erected in its place which internally obscures the top of the arch. The cathedral was constructed with a reinforced concrete frame, with inner and outer skins of brickwork, and the side verandahs were designed to allow the side doors to be left open, particularly during the wet season, to allow cross ventilation. The original design included transepts, which were deleted due to cost constraints; however, a section of the southern transept was retained as a side chapel. The original design of the cathedral also called for more extensive use of marble, particularly to the floors of the nave and sanctuary. The architect's original intention for the leadlight windows was to eventually house stained glass when funds permitted, but in the interim to use gold and light blue glass as per his design for the Sisters of Mercy St Bernard's College, Herberton. However, Bishop Cahill did not like the colour blue and requested that the windows be constructed with a field of burgundy red glass with an amber border. It was not until the glass was being installed that the enormous impact of the vast areas of burgundy red glass began to be felt. However, as the glass had been paid for and delivered to site, there was no option but to install it.

The foundation stone was laid on 28 May 1967, and the cathedral was consecrated on 8 July 1968 by the Most Rev. Cahill Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn, and opened on 14 July 1968 by Cardinal Gilroy Archbishop of Sydney. The cathedral was dedicated as a memorial to the Battle of the Coral Sea which was fought due east of Cairns from 4–8 May 1942. The baptistery was dedicated to the memory of Patrick and Elizabeth Cahill. On completion of the new cathedral, the former St Monica's Cathedral ceased functioning as a church, and the bishop's chair was removed to the new cathedral. The decision to dedicate the cathedral as a war memorial was partly to access the provision of tax deductibility for donations to the building fund. The final cost of the cathedral was approximately $300,000.

Bishop Torpie retired in August 1985, and was succeeded by Bishop John Bathersby. The Most Rev. Dr James Foley became Bishop of Cairns in August 1992.

St Monica's bell was commissioned from M Byrne, bell-founder in Dublin, Ireland. A bell tower was constructed adjacent to the front of the original St Monica's church (demolished in the cyclone of 1927) and the bell was installed, consecrated and blessed in November 1902. Later the tower and bell were moved to the rear of the Bishop's House until the tower was demolished in 1982. The bell has now been installed at ground level in the grounds of the cathedral.