Sacred Heart Cathedral
In its foundation period the Sacred Heart Cathedral was known as the Jesselton Mission. It was founded by Fr Henry van der Heyden in 1903. The five-acre mission land was procured by Fr Goossens and Fr Prenger in Fr Heyden’s name on 9 April 1903. The early community was made up of mostly poor Hakka farmers, some Europeans, Indians, Filipinos and Kadazan-Dusuns. In Fr Heyden’s letter of June 1903, the Mission was already called Sacred Heart of Jesus. A school (Sacred Heart Primary) started soon after with 23 students. Fr Valentine Weber did much to develop the Mission from April 1906 to February 1944.
The first church built by Fr Weber was solemnly blessed on 22 June 1911. A second church was built by Fr Arnold Verhoeven and blessed on 14 Aug 1938 by Msgr August Wachter. Unfortunately, this church was bombed by the Japanese in 1945, leaving only its foundation and some pillars intact. The postwar church was opened on 11 Dec 1949 by Msgr James Buis.
Places of interest: Marian grotto (1986), tombs of Bishop Simon Fung & Fr Valentine Weber (1987), outdoor Way of the Cross (2003).
How the Cathedral was built
Father Tobias Chi was the rector of Sacred Heart Church in 1970, taking over from Father Dominic Bekema, mhm. The church then was 21 years old (built in 1949) and facing dangerous structural problems. “The people who came to church were afraid because they did not feel safe… Bishop Buis was not very happy because he (Fr Bekema) called it a cathedral…” said Fr Chi. The permanent solution was to build a new church, all the more justified when Sacred Heart Church became a cathedral in 1976.
With local architect Shen Dah Cheong and constant input from Fr Chi, the design took a unique shape — the back of the cathedral (Blessed Sacrament Chapel) faces the main road and is air‑conditioned 24/7, acting as a sound barrier against traffic noise. The massive roof structure resembles a “tent” — a symbol of the church as the meeting place of God’s pilgrim people.
Fundraising was a communal effort: “This was really the people’s church, they built it,” Fr Chi recalled. Even small donations given with the heart built the cathedral we see today. In 1998, Fr Cosmas Lee finally achieved the original vision of placing the baptismal font at the entrance — a meaningful sign of the first sacrament.
The "futuristic" design has often been likened to a spaceship, narrow at the back (chapel) and expanding wide into the nave — but above all, the tent shape remains a powerful biblical image of God dwelling among His people.
Sacred Heart at a glance
- 1903 – Jesselton Mission founded
- 1903 – Sacred Heart Primary School opened
- 1911 – First church blessed
- 1945 – Church bombed during WWII
- 1981 – Present cathedral dedicated
- 1998 – Baptismal pool inside the church completed
- 2003 – Centenary Station of the Cross
“A tent for the pilgrim Church” — reminiscent of the Old Testament meeting tent, the cathedral roof inspires awe and devotion.