St Monica’s, Brunch and Fishing

Sunday 23rd May 2021

Today we woke up childless again. We had a good night sleep as did Madeline at Babcia and Dziadzio’s.

We got ourselves ready and headed off to pick them up before heading to mass.

We arrived at St Monica’s Cathedral and after signing in, we were lead to our seat.

The mass was lovely and Madeline was a good girl. So much so that a random parishioner came over to congratulate us as parents for her being to most well behaved toddler she’s ever seen in church.

St Monica’s Cathedral

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.

St Monica’s War Memorial Cathedral, dedicated as a memorial to the Battle of the Coral Sea. 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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

The construction of St Monica’s War Memorial Cathedral (current) was one of the major achievements of Bishop Cahill’s episcopate, who was the second bishop at the cathedral.

The Most Rev. John Torpie became the 3rd Bishop of Cairns in 1967.

Brisbane architect Ian Ferrier was commissioned in 1965 to design the new cathedral.

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 and the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in a small private prayer chapel to the side.

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.^[1]

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.^[1]

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.^[1]

The “Peace Window”, a triple arch window at the eastern entrance to the cathedral, was installed to coincide with the Victory in the Pacific celebrations in Far North Queensland, celebrating 50 years of peace in the Pacific, on 2 September 1995.

In 1998, the replacement of the burgundy red and amber glass in the 24 nave windows commenced. The glass is being replaced with stained/painted glass in a continuous design depicting the whole of Creation as written in the first chapters of Genesis. The artists for both the “Peace Window” and the Creation series are Gerry Cummins and Jill Stehn of Eumundi, Queensland.

Brunch

After mass we went to brunch at Muddy’s cafe. This was followed by a walk along the esplanade.