Love is etched into every part of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, says the architect tasked with its renewal. Source: Melbourne Catholic.
Speaking at the first Melbourne Catholic Professionals luncheon for 2026, architect Angelo Candalepas revealed that he has “always walked away from the building not wanting to leave it”.
Mr Candalepas joined Melbourne Archbishop Peter A Comensoli at the Park Hyatt on April 16 to talk about “Light into the City”, the once-in-a-generation project to restore and reimagine the cathedral precinct launched last month.
Mr Candalepas said the cathedral is shaped by ‘an enormous amount of love’, effort and imagination at every level.
He spoke of his own love for St Patrick’s, sometimes wishing he could experience it without looking at the building through an architect’s eye.
“I actually think God puts us on the earth to do certain things … and I think I’m in Melbourne to do St Patrick’s Cathedral,” he said.
He spoke warmly about the cathedral’s interior, the quality of its stonework and the way light falls through the windows in the afternoon. He said the aim, beyond preservation, is to provide an experience of respite, open equally to people in and outside the Catholic faith.
Part of that, he said, would be through the opening up of the precinct, allowing people to walk around the exterior in order to better appreciate the interior and the remarkable work that has gone into its making.
“And that does not exist easily elsewhere in the world,” Mr Candalepas said. “If we look at, let’s say, Notre Dame in Paris, most cathedrals are hemmed in, and even Notre Dame is the land that we see in a landscape setting. And what we will have here is an ability for people to have total secular respite.
“And the one step in from secular respite is spiritual respite. And I think that stepping stone will [usher] people from outside our community of belief into our community of belief.”
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‘I never want to leave it’: architect and Archbishop reflect on their love for St Patrick’s Cathedral (Melbourne Catholic)
