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Pius Tenth Parishioners Get Update on Plans to Rebuild Chili Church

Artist's rendering of the preliminary exterior design for Pius Tenth Church on Chili Avenue.
Rolf Rohn Design
Artist's rendering of the preliminary exterior design for Pius Tenth Church on Chili Avenue.

The nearly 2,000 families that  are parishioners at St. Pius Tenth in Chili got an update today on preliminary plans for a new church building, after a fire of undetermined cause heavily damaged the existing church in January 2015.

A design has been completed for a 57-foot structure, which Brian Porter, chairman of the rebuild committee, describes as Romanesque and traditional.

"It's going to be facing directly out to Chili Avenue. Our old church faced east. This one's going to face directly to Chili Avenue, so when you're driving down Chili Avenue, you'll see a giant rose window that will be backlit at night,” he said. “The structure will be roughly 57 feet tall and it is going to scream 'Catholic'. It's just a beautiful, beautiful church with lots of verticality that reaches up to the heavens and gives praise and glory to God."

The $4.5 million project will be funded through insurance payments and a capital campaign that recently exceeded its $2 million goal.

"However, we're still keeping the campaign going because there are additional things we'd like to include, such as a connection of the church to our parish center,” Porter said. “With the old church was connected; the new church won't be connected, so we want to add some corridors to connect it, and also allow us to maybe put some better finishes into the building."

Groundbreaking is planned for October and construction is expected to be completed by early December 2017

Beth Adams joined WXXI as host of Morning Edition in 2012 after a more than two-decade radio career. She was the longtime host of the WHAM Morning News in Rochester. Her career also took her from radio stations in Elmira, New York, to Miami, Florida.