Architects throughout the world were invited in 1960 to design a Cathedral for Liverpool which would relate to the existing Crypt, be capable of construction within five years and most important of all, express the new spirit of the liturgy then being reformulated by the Second Vatican Council.
Of 300 entries from all over the world, Sir Frederick Gibberd’s (1908-1984) design was chosen, and building began in October 1962. A Pathé newsreel showed stages of the building process.
Less than five years later, on the Feast of Pentecost, 14 May 1967, the completed Cathedral was consecrated.
The Papal Legate at the consecration, most appropriately, was His Eminence John Carmel, Cardinal Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster, who had been succeeded as Archbishop of Liverpool three years earlier by George Andrew Beck. The long wait was over.
