St. John's Pro-Cathedral is a Catholic church located in Australia in the city of Perth . The Church of St. John is the pro- cathedral of the Archdiocese of Perth . The temple is located on Victoria Avenue, 18 and is considered the earliest Catholic church in Western Australia . The church is listed on the Australian National Trust Register, the State Register of Cultural Heritage Sites, and the Perth City Heritage Register. It is currently a museum of the Archdiocese of Perth.
| Sight | |
| St. John's Cathedral | |
|---|---|
| St john's pro-cathedral | |
 | |
| A country |  Australia |
| Western Australia | Perth |
| Denomination | Roman catholic church |
| Diocese | Archdiocese of Perth |
| Building | 1843 - 1844 |
| Status | cathedral |
| condition | inactive temple |
History
In 1843, the Vatican granted the request for the founding of the Catholic Church in Perth, after which the Belgian priest Johann Jostens, along with layman Patrick Oreilly, departed on the Water Witch ship to Australia. Johann Jostens spent two months in Perth, and during this time he managed to get the local authorities to allocate a plot of land on Victoria Avenue for the construction of a Catholic church.
The construction of the temple began on December 27, 1843. The cornerstone was consecrated and laid on January 16, 1844. In the same year, the priest Johann Jostens left for Rome to petition the Holy See for the establishment of a diocese in Perth. In 1846, the first Bishop John of Brady arrived in Perth, who granted the Church of St. John the status of the cathedral of the Diocese of Perth.
The Church of St. John was the cathedral of the diocese of Perth until 1865, when a new cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Neo-Gothic style was built in Perth. The Church of St. John received the status of a pro-cathedral and in it a Catholic elementary school was additionally organized. In 1881, the temple was renovated and handed over to the nuns from the Sisters of Mercy congregation, who used the church as their monastic chapel. At the same time, the temple was used as the school chapel of Mercedes College.
In 1965, the temple building was renovated and began to be used as a classroom for students. In 1980, another repair took place, after which the church became a museum of the Archdiocese of Perth.
Source
- Bourke, DF The History of the Catholic Church in Western Australia (Archdiocese of Perth, 1979)