St. Pius X Catholic Church's new sanctuary nearly ready for its first service

St. Pius X Catholic Church in Granger is set to finish a $12,000,000 project on the 25th of this month and it looks pretty much ready to go.

It's been almost exactly two years since the project started in April of 2015 and it sounds like the congregation is ready for their much needed larger sanctuary.

so far, every little detail in the sanctuary looks amazing.

"It's just breathtaking," Director of Liturgy and Music Jeremy Hoy said.

It can seat 1300 people, but it's not quite finished.

"Well, part of me says 'we've only got three more weeks in the gym,'" Father William Schooler said. And part of me says 'oh my gosh, we've got to finish this.'"

Everything's been changed from the old sanctuary. Gone is the stained glass, and in with the large paintings.

"I couldn't believe this was our church," Hoy said. "We've had a church that was very beautiful, very simple. Then I come in and I'm not used to that. It's just absolutely beautiful."

In fact, every last drop of paint has some type of meaning in it. Spoiler alert, that's what the first sermon will be held on.

"What is the artwork and what does it mean," Hoy said. "We'll have pamphlets so people can take their own tours when they walk into the church."

As for the old sanctuary, it's connected to the building so they're planning on re-purposing it.

"The old church is going to be turned into meting room space because we lost our meeting room in renovations," Hoy said. "So we're actually going to have a bigger meeting room."

Even though its a big room, it just wasn't able to seat their large congregation.

"So long doing multiple masses in two different spaces," Hoy said. "So we have 750 over in the church and about 350-400 over in the other."

Now they have faith their sanctuary can hold anyone who wants to come.

"I think we can handle them," Schooler said. "We can handle them."

The old sanctuary will still be under construction into the summer. The final touches to the new sanctuary won't come in until May, so there's still a little bit left to go.