Nearly eleven years after it was devastated by fire on Christmas Day, 2004, the historic Sacred Heart Church is set for reopening on December 6th.
According to today’s Catholic Standard the Sacred Heart Catholic community will officially and permanently occupy the rebuilt facilities on Main Street. Reconstructing the 155-year-old church with some of its iconic features has so far cost $125m. The Catholic Standard report said that a special Mass will be said on December 6th.
It added that the new concrete church and caretaker’s quarters are over 90% finished. Work on replacing some of the original cast-iron fence will be carried out next year. The fence had to be completely removed after vandals started to steal parts of it.
The report said that there had been many cost overruns and minor re-designs which led to many delays. At the turning-of-the-sod ceremony in 2011 the construction cost had been pegged at $85m.
After the fire on December 25, 2004 a site development committee was set up and tasked with coming up with a design for the new building, among other undertakings, at the insistence of some church members and others from the larger Catholic community.
Electrical bulbs in the crib recreated to stage the scene of the birth of Jesus Christ sparked a fire during the restoration of current following a blackout. The flames caught onto combustible material, and within minutes the entire wooden church building and presbytery were gutted during the Christmas morning mass. It was around 8.50 in the morning, and about 60 worshippers were in the church at the time.
Other buildings levelled by the fire were the Kirpalani bond and a customs brokerage to the north of the building, in addition to the Sacred Heart Primary School.
A fraudulent attempt to claim insurance over the fire led to a protracted court case which was dismissed in the end.
