The New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference has decided to remediate the leaky building issues faced by Holy Cross Seminary, Ponsonby, at an estimated cost of $7.6 million.
NZCBC president and Auckland Bishop Patrick Dunn said the bishops considered three options: remediate, rebuild or relocate.
“We decided that the best option is to remediate the current buildings,” he said. “The whole thing still needs to be costed in 2019 terms.”
Bishop Dunn said they might need to “raise up to $4.5 million from diocesan levies and fundraising”.
The bishop said they are also hoping to get Government assistance in terms of funding.
“We hope to get $1.3 million from the Ministry of Business,
Innovation and Employment,” he said.
The leaky building issues were discovered in 2016. At the time, the cost to resolve the problems was estimated at $6 million.
Bishop Dunn said this will be one of the issues reported on to Pope Francis in the New Zealand bishops’ Ad Limina visit in October.
Apart from the seminary, the bishops will also report on whatever developments there are on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions, as well as updating the Pope on their plans for a single national Catholic theology tertiary education provider, Bishop Dunn said.
He added that each bishop will also report to the Pope on the developments within his own diocese during the past eight years.
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