[8] On 7 December 2019, the Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, Paul Martin, announced that a new $85 million cathedral was to be completed by 2025 and would accommodate up to 1,000 people.

[9] These plans proved controversial and resulted in an appeal by a group of parishioners to the Vatican's Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura in 2023.

During his 18 months overseas Grimes travelled in England, Ireland, France, Belgium, and on the return journey, via the Canadian Pacific Railway, in the United States and Canada.

[13] It "speaks volumes for the value average Catholic placed on their faith"[13] that such small numbers enabled the completion of their cathedral at a total cost of £52,000 with a final debt (10 years after it opened) of less than £5,000.

[13] Grimes said at the opening on 12 February 1905, a mere four years after construction began: "No one can claim that our stately Cathedral is the work of the wealthy.

This knowledge allowed Petre to require innovative methods during construction such as pouring heart walls with concrete and then facing with stone.

After its completion the cathedral, constructed of concrete sheathed in Oamaru limestone,[3] was widely acclaimed, later causing George Bernard Shaw to describe Petre as a "New Zealand Brunelleschi".

Ignoring Renaissance convention, Petre obtained a greater visual impact by siting the Italianate green copper-roofed dome not above the cross section of the church (as in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome), but directly above the sanctuary.

In Petre's opinion, this design element, coupled with the Byzantine apse, added extra grandeur and theatre to the high altar set in the tribune.

The nave and chancel roofs were supported by colonnades of Ionic columns and the entrance façade of the cathedral was flanked by twin towers in the manner of many of Europe's great renaissance churches.

[17] While often likened, at least in its outward form, to St Paul's Cathedral in London, it is conceivable that the greatest influence behind this structure was Benoit Haffreingue.

[14] George Bernard Shaw during his 1934 visit was unimpressed with Gilbert Scott's Anglican cathedral but generous in his praise of Petre's Catholic one.

"[14] In 1970 under Bishop Ashby, "years of grime deposited from the [then] nearby railway station and gasworks were cleaned off and restoration work was carried out.

Masses were not celebrated at the cathedral from the September earthquake, but took place at other nearby locations such as the chapel of the adjacent Music Centre.

Drennan said that workers repairing damage to the building caused by the earlier earthquake escaped, as did a custodian who was in the cathedral at the time.

[25] On 2 March, Bishop Barry Jones decided that the dome of the cathedral would be removed after an inspection revealed another large earthquake could topple it completely.

The statue had been damaged while being removed from the tower, but was repaired by Carmelite nuns in time for the procession,[29] which was organised by the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer.

I suspect there remains in Christchurch the notion of old that the Catholics are still regarded as peripheral, parked over on the edge of town in an area back in the day that was next to the gas works that turned the cathedral a nicotine yellow.

[34] By 7 May 2012, the Catholic diocese had spent about $3 million deconstructing the damaged parts of the cathedral, on cleaning and saving and numbering stones, windows and unique elements, and on transporting material, at night, to a storage facility in west Christchurch.

The facility and shrink-wrapping allowed the individually numbered objects to be kept in the "best condition possible" with a view to their use in any rebuild or as a guide for the design of new elements.

He said that the diocese had spent millions of dollars investigating the site and the building and had examined more than 20 different possibilities, but ultimately "a functional and financial solution" could not be found and the 113-year-old earthquake-damaged basilica would therefore be demolished.

[41] On Saturday 7 December 2019, Martin announced that a new $85 million Catholic cathedral to be completed by 2025 and accommodating up to 1,000 people would be built adjacent to Victoria Square.

The bishop said that the "sizeable" funding shortfall would be met through fundraising and the sale of excess property and assets, including potentially selling the old Barbadoes St site.

[43] On 7 December 2019, the Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, Paul Martin, announced that a new $85 million cathedral was to be completed by 2025 and would accommodate up to 1,000 people.

[9] These plans proved controversial and resulted in an appeal by a group of parishioners to the Vatican's Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura in 2023.

The CBS built a new state of the art facility at St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in which to house their music library, offices and a practice hall.

[46] In October 2019, members and associates of the CBS celebrated 50 years under the leadership of Don Whelan, with a luncheon at the Rydges Hotel in Central Christchurch.

[47][48] In March 2020, the Catholic bishops of New Zealand ordered the temporary suspension of Masses and churches to be temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in NZ.

Annual concerts of Bach's St John Passion and Handel's Messiah are performed on Good Friday and in mid-December, respectively.

In 2019, John Ritchie's Missa Corpus Christi was performed, as well as MacMillan's Hymn to the Blessed Sacrament and Mendelssohn's Verleih uns Frieden.