WEST CHESTER TWP. — A parish community that “remains faithful to the old ways” is building itself a new church in an old tradition.

        St. Gertrude the Great in Sharonville, a Traditional Movement Catholic Church, will break ground on a neo-Gothic building in West Chester Township at 1:15 p.m. Sunday.

Architect's rendering of the planned St. Gertrude the Great Catholic Church. | ZOOM |

        “We expect our church — with elaborate ceremonies, the traditional iconography, statues and candles — will be a real hit in the suburbs, where people are spiritually starved for reverence in worship,” said Bishop Daniel Dolan, pastor of the church.

        The church was founded in 1978, part of a grass-roots movement among Catholics opposed to reforms the Roman Catholic Church made in the 1960s after the Second Vatican Council. The Masses are still in Latin, and other pre-Vatican II doctrines are followed. St. Gertrude the Great is independent of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the Vatican.

        In 1980, the congregation bought what was once the Sharonville Presbyterian Church and has been in the 180-seat sanctuary ever since. Now, with 600 members, it plans to build a larger church with seating for 300 people at Ohio 747 and Rialto roads in West Chester Township.

        The building also will increase the classroom space available. The church has a K-12 school, housed primarily in three small rooms in the basement. The new church will have six classrooms.

        The congregation also has plans for a second phase that will include a larger sanctuary and more classrooms. But the buildings won't look like any of the other new churches in the area, Bishop Dolan said.

        The Rev. Anthony Cekada has overseen designs for the church and is hoping to build something similar to Cincinnati churches from the early 1900s.

        “The new church will not look like one of those nondescript, modern, multi-purpose centers that we see in new parishes — but rather will be a neo-Gothic 'sermon in stone,' ” he said. “People driving by it will say, "That looks like the kind of Catholic Church I went to when I was a kid in the 1940s.' ”

        Bishop Dolan said the ministry emphasizes old traditions and values. That ministry has attracted families to the church from as far away as north of Dayton.

        He hopes the new location, off Interstate 75 at the Union Centre exit, and the traditional building itself will attract more people.

        “It's deliberately designed in a neo-Tudor or neo-Gothic style,” he said. “We find that the old architecture represents very well what we're doing with our faith, with the building soaring up to God and emphasizing the sacred rather than the secular.”

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