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Questions remain about cathedral

To the editor:

On June 22, 2013, Bishop Jeffrey Monforton said he planned to renovate and maintain the Holy Name Cathedral as the spiritual center of the Catholic Diocese of Steubenville. He said “we will be installing 2014 and 2015 Wi-Fi technology.”

According to Monforton, $2 million was already raised for the fundraising campaign started seven years ago. He said “as we move forward with the Holy Name Cathedral renovation project, no additional goals will be asked of our diocesan parishes. But I do hope we will work together raising the additional $3 million necessary for the completion of this project.”

On June 9, 2014, Holy Name Church was closed after the last morning Mass. On June 10, 2014, Monforton officially declared Holy Name Church closed for between 18 and 24 months as the Catholic Diocese of Steubenville prepared to “renovate, restore and renew” its cathedral. He said the project was estimated to cost “approximately $5 million.”

Ten months later on April 9, 2015, City Council members listened to details of plans for the $7 million renovation of Holy Name Cathedral. Monforton said he was hoping for a rededication of the cathedral in 2017.

More than nine months later, on Jan. 30, 2016, the first phase of the renovation, restoration and renewal of Holy Name Cathedral finally began with the demolition of the church parking lot. This was the early completion forecast (18 months) of the entire renovation that Monforton stated on June 10, 2014.

On Nov. 12, 2016, Monforton said the renovation of Holy Name Cathedral is not going as fast as he would like “but is being done with deliberation and will be done over the course of time.”

There are questions and observations that arise around this project:

Why did the cost of the project go from approximately $5 million to $7 million between June 9, 2014, and April 9, 2015?

What has delayed the completion of this project beyond the January 2016 to June 2016 original projected time frame?

What does Monforton mean by saying on Nov. 12 that the project “will be done over the course of time”?

Why haven’t there been periodic updates on this project? The only one I saw was on June 12, 2014, through a link in the Steubenville Register.

Frank Krajovic

Atlanta

(Editor’s note: The writer is a 1965 graduate of Catholic Central High School)

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