Church of the Holy Spirit, Green Lane

1958 Church of the Holy Spirit

The Catholics who had dispersed into the suburbs of Georgetown during the Japanese occupation (1941-1945) remained put after the war. Meanwhile, new townships and large housings estates began sprouting in the suburbs from Green Lane to the airport. In 1958, when Fr. Surmon MEP returned from his leave in Europe, he was informed by the then Bishop of Penang, the late Rt. Rev. Francis Chan, to establish a new Catholic community in Green Lane area in Penang. Fr. Surmon who was entrusted with this task , took up residence at Little Sisters of the Poor and started gathering his flock of mix races, which numbered 1000.This community was known ‘parish without church’.

They celebrated mass on Sundays and feast days for 10 years at the canteen of the Green Lane Convent. After 10 years of hard work of collecting funds and discussing plans for a new church with the help of some advisors such as Mr. Gerry Reutens, and later of an building committee (1966 – 1973), a piece of land was bought some distance of the main thoroughfare; another piece was added on with the help of Rt. Rev Mother Tarcisius of the IJ Sisters and it was used as a play field and a car park. At the beginning it was decided that the new church would be dedicated to St. Bernadette since that year (1958) was the centenary of Our Ladys’ apparition to Bernadette in Lourdes in 1858. Later on the Vatican II and around 1962, the late Bishop Francis Chan was agreeable to the suggestion that the name to be changed to the Church of Holy Spirit.

The new townships and large housings estates began sprouting in the suburbs from Green Lane to the airport. In 1958, when Fr. Surmon MEP returned from his leave in Europe, he was informed by the then Bishop of Penang, the late Rt. Rev. Francis Chan, to establish a new Catholic community in Green Lane area in Penang. Fr. M Surmon MEP was the first Parish Priest from 1958 – 1970.
In September 2002, the Apostolic Delegate to Malaysia, Archbishop Adriano Bernardini issued a decree “That the Church in honour of the Holy Spirit in the city of Penang be elevated to the dignity and the status of a CATHEDRAL CHURCH, with all the rights, honours and privileges as well as duties and obligations attached to this kind of church”

http://www.holyspiritcathedral.com/english/html/about/history.htm