If you think I’m going to be cheerleading for the Catholic Church’s idea of building a new cathedral on its original site on Barbadoes Street, instead of in the central city, then think again.

Because, as far as I’m concerned, cathedrals in New Zealand have been nothing more than visions of grandeur.

And I think there are much more meaningful things the church could do with tens of millions of dollars, than pour it into another cathedral.

Little bit of background: the original Catholic cathedral on Barbadoes Street - the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament - was demolished after the church ummed and ahhed about whether to repair it or not after the earthquakes.

Eventually, the church decided to go for a brand new building on a different site in the centre of Christchurch. It was going to be real flash Harry with a carpark and a school. And it was going to be a few blocks away from the Anglican cathedral in the Square.

I say “was”, because the church announced yesterday that its thinking has changed and its preference now is to rebuild on the original site, down near the Moorhouse Ave end of Barbadoes Street.

I’m not sure how much this has been influenced by the 300-or-so members of the Catholic community in Christchurch who went to the Vatican earlier this year to try and get the central city development stopped.

They weren’t happy that the church was going to spend about a hundred million dollars on it. They thought that, if the church was going to spend that sort of money, it should be spent in the community and around parishes.

And, instead of building an edifice in the centre of town, these parishioners wanted the church to focus its attention on where the people actually go to church. You know: “Here’s a church and here’s the steeple. Open the door and here’s all the people”. And, for them, that’s all the churches around town. The parishes.

Now my reading of what the Catholic bishop announced yesterday, is that they’ve kind-of met the unhappy parishioners halfway. With a twist.

He still wants to build a new cathedral. But he wants to go back to Barbadoes Street. But the Bishop reckons it will cost $30 million less, and he wants to put that money aside for things like compensation payments to people who have been abused while in the care of the church and helping parishes around town build new churches when they’re needed.

Nothing was said in yesterday’s announcement about the likely cost of building back on the old site.

But let’s take the $100 million that was apparently going to be spent in the centre of town, take off the $30 million that the Bishop reckons he’s going to save, and assume that the church is still looking at spending about $70 million in some way, shape or form.

It’s also going to require fundraising and the sell-off of church land that isn’t needed.

But here’s the question: Should that $70 million be spent on a building? Or should it be spent on something else? I certainly don’t think it should be spent on another building.

Because in 2023, can another cathedral in a city the size of Christchurch really be justified? I don’t think it can. And nothing I’ve heard from the Bishop makes me think that this rebuild is anything but going back to the past.

He says: “The Barbadoes Street site is steeped in history, with many identifying it as an anchor for their faith in Christchurch.”

But, as someone who was raised a Catholic, I disagree. A church is not a building. It is a community. And a community is people. And that is where I think the Catholic Church should be putting its money. In the people.

What I reckon the Catholic Church should be doing, is instead of spending $70 million on a cathedral, it should be using it to help people.

And the way I would do it, is I would take the $70 million, invest it, and use the interest to support people in hardship. Now I know interest rates go up and down but, if you go and have a look at the rates at the moment, the average term deposit rate is about 6 percent.

So, on $70 million, the return on that would be $4.2 million a year. How many foodbanks could you run on that? How many night shelters? How many school shoes could you buy for hard-up families? See what I mean?

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