The building was completed in May 1973. That same year, on 29 June, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the new cathedral was consecrated and opened. Present were John Cardinal Heenan (Archbishop of Westminster), and twenty-nine bishops from around the United Kingdom, with Bishop Joseph Rudderham (7th bishop of Clifton); civic officials and councillors of Bristol; the Italian and Belgian consuls; the architects; Sir William 'Kirby' Laing (representing John Laing Construction Ltd); the Anglican bishops of Bristol, of Bath and Wells, and of Salisbury. The pro-cathedral was closed and its sale provided fund for the new parish school, SS Peter and Paul on Aberdeen Road, Clifton.