Moving heaven and earth: Christchurch's Catholic bishop builds a new cathedral

Saturday, 9 August 2025

PHILIP MATTHEWS meets Catholic Bishop Michael Gielen as he prepares to take on the church’s greatest challenge.

The Catholic bishops of Christchurch line the stairwell of the diocese office on Moorhouse Ave, one photo after another, taking you from black and white to colour, from history to the present. At the top, with no space left for a successor, there is Bishop Michael Gielen.

Bishops retire at 75 and as Gielen is 54, but looks a good decade younger, Christchurch could get another 21 years of him. Which is handy, as he is overseeing the most demanding church project in more than a century.

His second-floor office provides constant reminders of the task ahead. For now, he has a nice view of the Te Kaha stadium. But that may vanish once a new cathedral rises in front of it.

Far across the green playing fields of Catholic Cathedral College, a car park fills the space once occupied by perhaps the greatest ecclesiastical building in New Zealand. That was of course the Renaissance-style Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, completed in 1905, damaged in the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 and demolished in 2020.

Demographic change puts an even greater focus on the fate of the Catholic cathedral. In both the 2018 and 2023 census, Catholicism overtook Anglicanism as the city’s leading Christian denomination, while the repair of the city’s Anglican cathedral has stalled.

A milestone was reached in June when Warren and Mahoney was appointed as architect of the new Catholic cathedral and surrounding precinct. Gielen said in a media release “we are confident that Warren and Mahoney will walk with us in building a worthy house of worship to glorify God and to welcome his people”, and “it will be a place where heaven and earth meet”.

That is no ordinary brief. Jonathan Coote, head of design for Warren and Mahoney in Christchurch, described cathedrals as “incredibly powerful places that evoke a sense of unity, ritual and tradition by using all the tools we have as architects – volume, acoustics and light in its varying forms”.

Gielen explains they are in masterplanning right now, to be followed by concept design, detailed design and then the build. If he has a time frame in mind, he is not sharing it.

“I have dreams but I’m trusting the process,” he says. “Warren and Mahoney are pretty strong about trusting their process. I’ve never done this before. This is the first cathedral [in New Zealand] in 120 years and no other living bishop has done it.”

Would five years be a reasonable ballpark figure?

“I won’t give a number. You know what happens when you give numbers, you get held to them and you let people down. People’s hopes are dashed. I will trust the process.”

You can see his point. When his predecessor, Archbishop Paul Martin, announced an ambitious $500 million plan to build a new cathedral alongside offices, a school and a car park on Armagh St in 2019, in collaboration with the Carter Group, he said it would be open by 2025.

That plan was reviewed and abandoned after Gielen took over in 2022 and his property team “are looking at a slow process of divesting” the central city land bought for the project.

Martin’s big plan reportedly had a $85m cathedral within the $126m Catholic precinct. No budget for the new cathedral has been released.

“We’ve given them our brief and then we’ll find out what we can afford. Part of the reason to come back here is prudence around our finances. We want to make sure we can afford to build it, so that we do build it.”

The return home

As well as prudence, it made emotional sense to return to the Barbadoes St site, with its long tradition and connection to communities. Non-Catholics were baffled that a grand new cathedral would be built in the centre of town, less than 1km from St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral on Manchester St. As were Catholics, it turned out.

“We went to our people and said, here are our three options that are most obvious,” Gielen says. “Here on Barbadoes St, on Armagh St, or doing up the pro-Cathedral. And more than 80% of the people said to rebuild it here.”

After consultation, the new cathedral will also have the same name as the old one.

But as a non-Cantabrian, did the old cathedral have meaning for Gielen? Did he know it well?

“We all knew it well,” he says. “The whole country celebrated the Blessed Sacrament cathedral. I went there and celebrated mass once. I marvelled at it from afar and from close. I was very honoured to have been there.”

Looking back, is it regrettable it was not repaired?

“I try not to judge other people’s decisions. I try to think the best of people. I’m sure the archbishop, after consultation with people, made the right decision. I’m very grateful he had the courage to do it because I know it was a very difficult decision to make. It’s definitely left us in a good position to make some good decisions for the future.”

Does he think there are lessons to learn from the Anglican situation?

“I’d consider Bishop Peter Carrell a friend of mine. I have the highest respect for him. I feel for him, the position he’s in. We’ve got to get on with our own challenge. I think it’s very complicated, what they have been through. I don’t want to judge.”

As Carrell could tell him, it has been an odd time for churches in Christchurch. For 15 years, heads of both major denominations have been preoccupied with building management, heritage issues, insurance pay-outs and demolitions. They are property managers as well as priests.

“Sometimes we say there is always the challenge for us as pastors between mission and maintenance,” Gielen says. “It’s keeping one eye on the mission but understanding that also requires maintenance of the mission that’s gone before us. You want to respect what has gone before and make sure you honour that but not be, like you say, preoccupied with maintaining it. Where necessary, you adjust to what is best for the future and also respectfully change where necessary.”

The personal moment

Before this, Gielen was the auxiliary bishop in Auckland. And before that?

He was born in Cambridge, Waikato, and brought up in a churchgoing Catholic family, the first of six children of Henk and Maureen Gielen. There was no tradition of priests in his family and when he told the principal of his state high school about his calling, the principal replied “we’ve never had one of those before”.

What happened?

“It was a very personal thing. I heard Jesus asking me to offer my life in service of him and the church. And I have responded to that. It captivated my heart and I’ve always carried it.”

He was very young, he says. Just 10 years old.

“I’ve been won by his love. I believe he’s real and that he lives and that he wants to help us, and he’s got a plan for us. I’m completely sold on that. I gave my life to it, and it’s brought me here, which for me is a real honour. I always quietly respected the Cantabrians and Christchurch and respect them even more now, being here.”

One wonders what other people made of that eager teenager’s ambition.

“I am who I am,” he says. “I’m not too worried about being passionate. I think people respect you if you clearly tell them, this is who I want to be, this is who I am. I’m happy to be that. Be who you are.”

He did not go straight to seminary from school but spent two years working in the courts in Tokoroa. That in itself was an education in the human condition.

After seminary in Mosgiel, he had stints in churches across the North Island, including in Gisborne, Hamilton and Raglan. He was based in Mt Maunganui, near Tauranga, when the 2011 earthquake struck Christchurch. He remembers the exact moment. His heart ached, he says, and he decided to adopt a parish in Christchurch to help out. That weekend, the donation plate overflowed with cash, which he has not seen before or since.

Months later, the Christchurch parish returned the favour when the Rena struck the Astrolabe Reef off the coast of Mt Maunganui and spilled oil across the beaches.

The diocese covers all of Canterbury, plus the West Coast. Two things struck Gielen when he made the move south. The first is a stronger sense of community than he saw in Auckland. The second is an attention to detail and focus on getting things right, not just in church matters but everywhere.

And of course there is sport. He believes Christchurch has the best golf courses and he plays at Kaiapoi with a group called the Monday Maestros. He played cricket for Poverty Bay while based in Gisborne, and cycled from Cape Reinga to Bluff in 33 days to promote religious vocations.

“I’m also a passionate Chiefs supporter. I tried to convert to Canterbury but I’m the sort of guy that once I commit, I commit.”

It’s a reassuring thing to hear from a bishop. He laughs at that. In fact, he seems far too relaxed for someone who has the biggest task ahead of him since John Grimes, the first Bishop of Christchurch, had the original cathedral built. Curiously, that was also under a pope named Leo.

“You know what I think, in all honesty,” Gielen says. “Today’s a privilege. I’ll live today. See what happens tomorrow. I really do. I’ve seen too many of my friends and family and loved ones pass to be foolish enough to think ahead. Just take one day at a time.”

The white smoke

Gielen was studying in Rome in 2013 when a new pope was chosen. Even better, he happened to be in St Peter’s Square as the white smoke emerged. What a moment.

“I’m feeling it, I’m feeling the joy,” he enthused to the Waikato Times.

The story about Pope Francis reminds him. He dashes across the office to fetch a gift. He hands me a set of rosary beads, all the way from Rome. The container says Papa Francesco on one side, and Vaticano on the other.

He likes to give them to guests. “They have meaning.”

Back to that day in 2013.

“I have only ever seen one lot of smoke and that was the white smoke. My Latin’s not great, and when they announced Franciscus, I thought they were saying he was from France. Of course that was his name he had chosen. The first pope to be called Francis.”

In the Waikato Times interview, Gielen remarked that followers of St Francis were known for their poverty and simplicity, which was useful during a crisis of materialism.

He remembers how quickly Francis connected with people. And how vast the crowds were.

He met Francis twice in Rome. He was honoured to be chosen as a bishop by Francis and there is a nice photo of them together. At one of their meetings, Gielen stood up and thanked Francis for his humility and the way he leads.

“He told me to sit down quickly. A very humble thing to do.”

One of Francis’ early achievements was a document called Laudato Si’, a reminder that caring for the earth as our common home is not just an environmental programme but a religious one.

“If God exists, and I believe he does, and he has created our world then we should look after it and we should care for it for generations to come,” Gielen says.

Some will think we do not hear that enough from churches.

“Yeah. There’s always more we can do. I suppose it feels at times like there are many challenges in our world and each church chooses its own challenge. He identified that. We can do more.”

Gielen was not in Rome for the latest papal election but Cardinal John Dew was. In fact, he voted in the conclave process that is well-known from the recent movie and came to Christchurch to tell the faithful about his conclave experience, without revealing who he voted for. Those are the rules.

Yet Gielen does remember the night Robert Prevost was elected Pope Leo XIV, in what was an even greater surprise than the election of Francis. Gielen had an unsettled sleep and kept waking to check his phone, as though he had a special sense about it.

Pope Leo XIV’s compassionate comments in support of migrants and refugees, and civilians in Gaza, have been appreciated beyond the church. Gielen sees these concerns in connection with Leo’s previous role as head of the Augustinian order, which is dedicated to the poor and marginalised, and has a global reach.

“He would have a really good understanding of what the world faces, so they have chosen well.”

But the new pope arrives at a moment when Catholicism is highly politicised, especially on the right in the United States. The pope criticised US policies before his election, which saw US President Donald Trump associate Laura Loomer attack him as “anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open borders, and a total Marxist”. While extreme, that hints at the policy divisions.

“You know, in the end, we’re family,” Gielen says. “And all families have different perspectives, different colours, different opinions. As Catholics, we’re part of the world and so we have all the different spectrums of opinions.”

It’s an uncontroversial opinion itself. Nor is Gielen prepared to crow about the demographic triumph of Catholicism, and what it means in a city that had a strong Anglican identity for more than 150 years. According to Stats NZ figures from 2023, there are 38,000 Catholics in the city of Christchurch, compared to nearly 22,000 Anglicans.

At a national level, Catholics took the lead in 2013. But in the end, does that mean anything?

“I don’t give it much thought, in all honesty. I think we need to focus on being who we have been called to be as best we can. If we do that, hopefully our city and our diocese will be better for it.

“We haven’t always done that. We’ll focus on getting things right ourselves and won’t worry about judging others. We’ve done that in the past and we won’t do that again.”