George Cardinal Pell
Memorial Chapel

Whilst the famous Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel at St Patrick’s College Manly (Sydney) was built forty years after the completion of the seminary in the 1930s, it is not our intention to wait that long to build the George Cardinal Pell Memorial Chapel at Sydney’s Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary! After all, we would also like to enjoy what will be a most conducive environment for prayer and liturgy within our own life times. Godspeed that is not too much to ask, don’t you think!

The project already has Development Approval and the technical design work has now progressed considerably. We expect to break ground initiating the foundations by November this year (2023).

This chapel will be rather unique for Australia, but also undoubtedly the first of its kind here down-under. Designed by Kiko Arguello, the Artist Co-Initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way, it is a project that has already been brought to completion in a number of Seminaries around the world; and they are all beautiful and liturgically have been proven to work!

The octagonal shape dates back to pre-Christian antiquity and reached its climax in early Christian designs. Eight is the number of the risen Christ; Eight are the number of people saved with Noah in the Ark; Eight the number of days for the dove to return with an olive branch; Eight are the beatitudes. So it is not by chance that the chapel  has an eight sided footprint symbolizing rebirth and resurrection. It is a shape that has also traditionally been used in baptismal fonts and churches through the ages.

The Chapel has a beautiful design with contrasting wooden and marble finishes including a crown of icons to cap off the interior overhead. The internal liturgical shape is a fulfilment of everything Vatican II aspired to. Though not the size of a parish church it will accommodate an assembly of 120; quite enough for special occasions marking important moments in the yearly life of the seminary.

The project of the Chapel, Offices and Staff Room will have a budgeted cost of $4 million. The Lord through our benefactors has been so good to us this far, we now pray that he may continue to bless us with his providence. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you wish to contribute in leaving behind a legacy that will stand tall, like our dear Cardinal, for many generations to come.

You will see below some images from the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Denver, Colorado USA.

Dostoevsky living in difficult times is quoted to have said: “Beauty will Save the World!”