{"id":56643,"date":"2025-12-25T10:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T10:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rwanda-s-catholic-church-to-begin-construction-of-new-st-michel-cathedral-in\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T11:50:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:50:44","slug":"rwanda-s-catholic-church-to-begin-construction-of-new-st-michel-cathedral-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rwanda-s-catholic-church-to-begin-construction-of-new-st-michel-cathedral-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda&#8217;s Catholic Church to begin construction of new St. Michel Cathedral in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking to the congregation, the cardinal stressed the urgency of the project, noting how the current church often overflows, with worshippers spilling outside and tents needed for extra space. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s time for us to come together and build a spacious, beautiful cathedral,&#8221; he said, urging everyone to get involved.<\/p>\n<p>He encouraged Christians to reach out to the chief priest at St. Michel Parish with ideas or donations within their means. <\/p>\n<p>The goal is a grand church that matches Kigali&#8217;s rapid growth and modern vibe, built on land donated by the president.<\/p>\n<p>When pressed for specifics like an exact start date or budget, Cardinal Kambanda said planning is ongoing but fundraising and preparations continue full steam ahead.<\/p>\n<p>The new cathedral will rise on the site of the former Nyarugenge Prison, known locally as &#8220;1930.&#8221; Designs show a contemporary building with room for at least 5,000 inside and vast outdoor areas to handle up to 20,000 for big celebrations.<\/p>\n<p>Cardinal Kambanda first voiced his vision for a fitting city cathedral back in 2019 during his installation ceremony at Amahoro Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) announced that efforts to raise 40 billion Rwandan Francs for the construction were still underway.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the Cathedral of Kigali is located in Kiyovu, Nyarugenge District, where St. Michel Parish is based. However, it is too small to accommodate large events.<\/p>\n<p>St. Michel Parish was founded in 1963 as part of the Kabgayi Diocese and became a Cathedral Parish on May 3, 1976, when the Archdiocese of Kigali was established.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99700\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_-70-ee7a3.jpg\" alt=\"Designs show a contemporary building with room for at least 5,000 inside and vast outdoor areas to handle up to 20,000 for big celebrations.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99701\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/2h6a8997_53910058010_o-1d533.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99703\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/2h6a9003_53908719717_o-4ea0b.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99702\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/2h6a9006_53909957569_o-f71db.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99704\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/2h6a9035_53910058190_o-a2af1.jpg\" alt=\"The new cathedral will be build at former premises of Nyarugenge Prison. \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99705\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/2h6a9048_53909614326_o-a17c5.jpg\" alt=\"The artistic impression of the new St. Michel Cathedral to be built starting next year. \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cardinal Antoine Kambanda announced that construction of a new, modern St. Michel Cathedral in Kigali is set to begin in 2026. He shared the update during Christmas Eve Mass on December 24, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000099706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000099706,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2h6a9048_53909614326_o-a17c5.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2h6a9048_53909614326_o-a17c5.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2h6a9048_53909614326_o-a17c5.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2h6a9048_53909614326_o-a17c5.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2h6a9048_53909614326_o-a17c5.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2h6a9048_53909614326_o-a17c5.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000099706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56643"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56643"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}