Public concerns addressed ahead of major restoration of St. Peter’s Cathedral Basilica

The Catholic diocese of London is set to undertake a large restoration project at their cathedral, they held a community information session on Wednesday.

A public information meeting was held in downtown London, Ont. Wednesday night ahead of major restoration of St. Peter’s Cathedral Basilica.

Michael Wojtak, business manager at the parish, said addressing the concerns of parishioners is the main priority.

“For the next few weeks we’re going to start seeing scaffolding going up at the front and at that point we’re going to be looking at the materials, the damage that’s been caused by water damage over the past few years and we’re going to be looking at paint choices and flooring samples and things like that,” said Wojtak. “A lot of the next phase is simply investigation, because we haven’t looked at this since the outside shell of the building was restored 20 years ago.”

Wojtak said the purpose of the restoration is to address significant water damage, restore pews, remove flooring, and upgrade electrical systems.

The church has been a central place of worship in downtown London for more than 140 years and will continue to offer masses during the renovation.

“We’re almost 100 per cent certain that we will not be closing it,” said Wojtak. “Certain sections of it will be under scaffolding, under tarps, things like that because we’re moving the flooring, removing lead off the wall surfaces, things like that but that’s going to be done in sections.”