The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Sandhurst, in addition to being a primary place of community and personal worship, providing an opportunity for private contemplation and solitude in a beautiful surrounding, also has for many years conducted activities at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in the City of Bendigo that:

•    Preserve and protect its significant heritage of movable and immovable objects;
•    Provide opportunities for the performances of music and the performing arts; and
•    Promote community participation and appreciation in and of the various forms of visual arts and crafts.

The mission of the Aspire Cultural and Charitable Foundation is to provide opportunities for the advancement of these activities.

Monsignor Frank Marriott has a vision that sees a beautiful pathway and a cascade of steps flowing from High Street, up to the majestic Sacred Heart Cathedral, sitting as a landmark atop our Bendigo landscape.  Along the way the pathway may divert us to the Cultural Interpretive Centre, over near Short Street, with its depiction of the Faith on the Goldfields culture of Bendigo and its regions for the past 160 years.

The Sacred Heart Cathedral, our worldly icon in Bendigo is 110 years old.  It is now time to take the next steps to ensure that its life lives on with a deeper depiction of our past and a direction for our future through greater understanding and learning.

Aspire Cultural and Charitable Foundation will be the vehicle that undertakes fund raising activities to provide for the development of the memorial path with its cascade of steps and the construction of the Cultural Interpretive Centre which will display our iconic heritage and provide library learning facilities to educate our community both young and old.  These activities will ensure the Sacred Heart Cathedral lives on for at least another hundred years.