By Bernard Anthony
KUALA LUMPUR — The Cathedral of St John will soon have a new community centre. Archbishop Julian Leow led the groundbreaking and blessing ceremony for the Magnificat Community Centre on May 2.
He was joined by parish priest, Fr Gerard Steve Theraviam and head of the Building Committee, Selvanathan.
The ground-breaking ceremony was held on the grounds of the existing two-storey hall, adjacent to the cathedral, that will partly make way for the new RM16 million fourstorey pastoral and community centre.
The centre will house a chapel, conference hall (600 people), meeting rooms, parish offices, funeral parlour, children’s catechism classrooms, grotto, cafeteria, PIHD programmes and dormitories.
Archbishop Julian prayed that there would be no untoward incident and that the construction would be completed on time and within the budget.
After the Scripture reading, prayer of intercessions and blessings, Archbishop Julian and Fr Gerard blessed the grounds with holy water.
Then, with the flick of a shovel, Archbishop Julian, followed by Fr Gerard and then Selvanathan, celebrated the start of the construction.
The event ended with a group photo and tea fellowship.
The estimated construction cost is RM14.5 million with an additional RM1.5 million being development cost. As of April 26, the parish has raised RM11.2 million.
The project will take approximately 15 months to complete. The handover of the site to the contractor was on March 7.
The Magnificat is expected to be completed by 2024 fulfilling the pastoral requirements for the parish for the next 40 years.
To raise the outstanding amount, the parish has ongoing fund-raising projects such as donations, T-shirt sales, Fam Day Fiesta on June 18, buy a brick at RM10/- each and a musical event in August.
