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Catholic Cathedral, Pratt Street.
The first Roman
Catholic Church that was erected in Suva was a small wooden chapel of St. Paul
in Toorak Road that was consecrated in 1885.
Quite a remarkable
achievement in the view of the general cost and the fact that all the sandstone,
pillars and girders used in the construction were imported laboriously from
Australia, the foundation stone for the Sacred Heart Cathedral at Pratt St. was
blessed with a liturgical celebration on Sunday, July 22, 1894 by the first
Roman Catholic Bishop Julian Vidal S. M. Despite the fact that construction
slowed down because of the bubonic plague outbreak in Sydney, in 1936, Bishop
Nicholas decreed that construction be completed and this saw the beginning of
dedicated fundraising by the congregation. The Sacred Heart Cathedral was
completed in 1939. |
