Nearly 5-hour consecration ceremony to be held for new mega-church in Kansas

ST. MARYS, Kan. (KSNT) – After waiting for several years, celebrants of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) will host a consecration ceremony for their new Immaculata Church in St. Marys.

The consecration is set for May 3, 2023, for what promises to be one of the largest churches in the Sunflower State, according to Immaculata spokeswoman Philomena Peters.

With a seating capacity of more than 1,500 people, the church will be the largest SSPX church in the world. Present for the ceremony will be Bishop Bernard Fellay, an auxiliary bishop of the SSPX.

Peters said a consecration changes an ordinary building into a church dedicated to the service of God. It includes the traditional rite of consecrating a church, followed by the first mass at the Immaculata. The four-and-a-half-hour-long ceremony will conclude with an open house.

The new Immaculata replaces the original building destroyed by fire in 1978, according to Peters. Construction on the new church began in 2020 following millions of dollars in funding from donors. The Immaculata will conduct traditional Latin mass and other sacraments according to the traditional rites of the Catholic Church.

KSNT News recently visited the church to get an inside look before the consecration ceremony and was present for the arrival of several large bells shipped from France.