The Diocese of Raleigh will find a new place of worship when the Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral opens in fall 2017.
The total cost of the cathedral is $41 million , which was raised through a free willcampaign. Billy Atwell, Director of Communications for the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh , wanted to make it clear that there were no taxes on parishes.
“All the money was voluntarily pledged by parishioners,” Atwell said.
The current cathedral for the Diocese is Sacred Heart, located in downtown Raleigh, which holds about 320 people. There are 11 masses on weekends to account for all the parishioners. The Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral will be able to hold 2000.
The Diocese of Raleigh stretches from Burlington to the Outer Banks. However, capacity wasn’t a problem when Sacred Heart opened in the 1920s.
“There were only 5,000 Catholics in the entire state,” Atwell said. “Now, there are half-a-million in our Diocese alone. We are overdue for a new spiritual home, big enough to fit everyone.”
The NC State Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM) holds five masses at Witherspoon Student Center each week, and one at Sacred Heart. According to Atwell, no attempts have been made to reach out to the CCM, but he believes that they will move their weekly masses to the Holy Name of Jesus when it is opened.
Carol Ann Walker, a sophomore studying computer science, has been a part of the parish at NC State since the fall of 2014. She is an active participant of the parish and attends Mass a couple times a week. Walker believes that only one weekly Mass, if anything, will be held at Holy Name of Jesus by the NC State parish.
“It is just so convenient for people living on campus to come to Witherspoon for Mass,” she said.
Walker also shared how she thinks the cathedral will affect students at NC State.
“A lot of people come to college and they have a plan: Get a job, and get married … This new cathedral gives people, especially Catholics, a chance to get married at NC State,” Walker said.
Bishop Burbidge and his staff decided the design of the cathedral. They traveled to different parishes and gathered information on what they wanted. An architect was then hired to create a design that fit everyone’s’ needs.
“I am very excited for the cathedral,” Walker said. “I hear the architects of the cathedral are the same architects from my parish in Charlotte, and that is a very beautiful church.”
Forty stained glass windows, made from around half-a-million pieces of glass have been gathered from the recently deconstructed Ascension of Our Lord Church in Philadelphia. Philadelphian artist, Joseph Beyer, restored the stain glass, as well as created new pieces of his own for the Cathedral.
Upon Holy Name of Jesus’ opening, the staff of Sacred Heart will be relocated there. The elementary and middle school of Sacred Heart also plans to relocate to the new cathedral, though a date has not been set.
While the Diocese of Raleigh is thriving in numbers, Atwell still hopes that this new opening will draw in new parishioners.
“It’s natural for people who have left the church to look at a building like that and think about their faith,” Atwell said. “The beauty of the project can hopefully bring people back to their faith.”
