Light into the City: Restoring St. Patrick’s Cathedral

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COZ150: Episode 150 of Catholics of Oz is a milestone worth celebrating, and the team marks it with two rich topics that blend faith and culture in true COZ fashion.

Lindsay Sant, Caroline Knight, and Lino Saubolle open with the 2026 Patrick Oration, delivered by Archbishop Peter Comensoli at Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The theme: Light into the City — a once-in-a-generation fundraising campaign to restore, renew, and reimagine the entire cathedral precinct.

The Archbishop’s case is built on scale. The cathedral draws close to a million visitors annually — more than most Melbourne landmarks. The Sunday 11am Mass alone reaches roughly 22,500 people each week across in-person attendance, Channel 31 broadcast, and online streaming. On Good Friday last year, over 32,000 watched via television and YouTube, with another 3,000 physically present. The building itself is showing its age: sandstone is crumbling and pieces are falling off, the slate roof needs replacing, the floors need resetting, and the lighting and sound systems are well overdue for an upgrade. A new underground crypt and chapel — absent from the original design — will also be created. The total restoration is valued at $190M across two stages, with $90M already secured through major donors and a federal government contribution.

The conversation goes deeper than bricks and mortar. Caroline shares that her son Harry had his first cathedral Mass just days before recording, presided over by the Archbishop. Lino reflects on adoration visits and a niece’s confirmation. Lindsay draws on experiences visiting cathedrals in Malta, the Holy Land, and France — noting how they always feel like home for a Catholic, even thousands of kilometres away. The team also takes on the familiar objection: shouldn’t that money go to the poor? Their answer: sacred art and architecture are not in competition with charity. They inspire the faith that drives people to serve.

The science segment covers a recent study in Trends in Biotechnology: researchers used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to redesign Fusarium venenatum, a fungus already used commercially in meat substitutes. Two targeted edits make the cell wall thinner for better digestibility and redirect carbon metabolism away from waste byproducts and into protein production. The results are striking: 88% faster protein production, 44% less sugar input, 60% fewer greenhouse gas emissions vs. the original fermentation process, 70% less land use than chicken farming, and 78% less freshwater pollution. Caroline sees real potential for sustainable food production, particularly in drought-prone Australia. The team also notes the obvious Lenten application — and unanimously agrees the officially designated strain name “FCPD” is a commercial death sentence. The new name? Meat Shroom.

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Thank you to Moon Shadow Studios
This episode of The Catholics of Oz was edited by Patrick McCaffrey of Moon Shadow Studios. To have your own audio professionally edited by Moon Shadow Studios visit them at their web site MoonShadowStudios.biz.

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Catholics of Oz