Workers to Complete the St. John School

Workers on to work	Some of the workers prepare for work

14 builders are here to complete the St. John Secondary School at Nila Catholic Mission. The head builder, Mr. Willy Wania said, “They are here by the request of Rev, Bishop Luciano Capelli sdb to help out finishing the St. John Secondary School”. He said, most of the boys were graduated student from Don Bosco technical school. With them also 6 Vanga Rural Training Center graduated students.

St. John School Building. (picture 2009)	A View- School Building with 2 Staff House. (Picture 2009)

At the school they will form co-groups so that they can work cooperatively and manage the construction.

The construction of the St. John Secondary School began November last year. The school will have form 4, 5 and to 6.

Mr. Willy said, to finish this school, they depend mush to the helps of the communities at Nila parish.

At the moment they did small constrictive works for the diocese here in Gizo.

Diocese of Gizo

New Cathedral Building                                New St. Peter's Kindy on construction & the old Kindy

Looking forward for this coming June 29^th, the church will rejoice for the opening of the New St. Peter’s Cathedral Building here in Gizo Diocese. We are now celebrating the Golden Jubilee Anniversary, so we renew ourselves and the communion of the People, so we are making History by the rebirth and re-launching of the church after the first 50 years.

......we will celebrate together and continue to improve Education for our children starting with our new Kindy building here in Gizo parish.

Materials Arrive for The New Church Building

Unloading Sand from the Barge Community Work

Tonnes of loaded Church Materials are arriving to continue the Church building. Materials are from Italy and expecting tonnes will arrive soon. The Cathedral was left untouched since March this year.
The Diocese is expecting more volunteers from Italy to continue the St. Peter’s Cathedral Gizo.

Radio Happy Lagoon interviewed our Bishop, Most Rev, Bishop Capelli on the 22nd January about the church building.

During the interview, Bishop Capelli said, the reconstruction work was carried out after the major structure of the old church building was damaged by the April 2007 Tsunami and earthquake that devasted parts of Western and Choiseul Provinces. The church started to be demolished on November and by December we begin to rebuild the church. Bishop said, the sitting capacity will about 360, then on both sides sits.

Bishop Luciano said, “actually the church is almost the same as the old cathedral, it will have double roofing on top and on both sides. It will look  in style to give a homely touch.

“Funding for the church was made possible through the efforts of many people including Bishop Chris Cardone with his friends from the United States, Bishop Capelli and friends from Italy, the volunteers and the people from the Diocese. He said, “it was a community effort which almost totaled up to $1 million Solomon dollars.

Bishop Capelli said , “The same volunteers, architects, leading men and people who built Don Bosco school and mini-hospital at Tetere came here to help us rebuild our church. They financed themselves. That is the true spirit of  the volunteer”.

Bishop Luciano said, the great thing that is happening in our church is the renewal of the people and the ability to cope uwith the tragedy of the Tsunami, but the most important aspect is to stick close to the people in their needs for their daily livelihood. So after we did that for 1 year we started to return to church work in the second year.

Bishop Capelli said, “The best message from this church building is, we have to learn to be volunteers. These volunteers are here just to help us, and they should inspire us to go back to our Melanesian values of community work. So let us put aside some of our time to build our community. Let's not ask what the church can do for us, but what we can do for the church and for our society to make it a better world”

Gizo Cathedral Progress

The new Cathedral is going very well with the workers putting in long hours six days per week. Click on the new photo gallery (right) for later photos.

All Souls Day and Cathedral de-construction

The following photos show the All Souls Day procession to the tombs as well as deconstruction work on the badly damaged Cathedral. Click on an image to show it full size. You can also drag photos around your screen so you can see several enlarged ones at once. Click on the new photo gallery (right) for later photos.

Artist Impressions of the new Gizo Cathedral

The original 40 year old Gizo Cathedral was very badly damaged in the devastating earthquake of April 2nd 2007. The remains of the Cathedral have now been de-constructed and in a lot less than 12 months  the new Cathedral should be fully in use. Here are the pictures of the new building. You can click on an image to show more detail.