In a long awaited decision, Bishop Mitchell Rozanski announced the Springfield diocese will build a new Catholic high school at the former site of Cathedral High.

Rozanski had been trying to choose between two possible locations: a wooded parcel in Chicopee, or the site on Surrey Road in Springfield — where Cathedral had been before the 2011 tornado destroyed it.

The decision was hotly debated between those who wanted the school in Springfield and those who didn’t.

“In the end, the opinions I received from near and far were almost equally divided,” Rozanski says. “So I had no choice but to heed St Paul’s words from last Sunday, to walk my faith.”

He says it came down to financials — the diocese already owns the surrey road site. Millions in insurance money and federal disaster funds will go into the building project.

The new school, to be named Pope Francis High, will merge the shrinking student bodies of Cathedral and Holyoke Catholic High. Several students from both schools say they’re just happy to move forward.