CRANBERRY TWP — Construction for the new St. Kilian Church is on schedule for an August completion and will be blessed later this year.

The ceremony at 2 p.m. Sept. 25 will have Bishop David Zubik bless the church on Franklin Road. It will be the first time Mass will be held at the new church.

Work is being done by Mosites Construction of Pittsburgh.

Next year is the church’s centennial.

“We’ve greatly benefitted from the mild winter,” marketing director Stacye DeJulius said. “Everything is under way.”

About nine months after the construction part of the project started, the framing of the church is nearing completion and brick work is being done. DeJulius said more work is focusing on the church’s interior.

The parish has tried to move into a permanent church building since 2002.

The budget for the project is nearly $11 million, which includes parking, infrastructure, utilities and the building.

The new church will include a basement hall with 350 seats, a full-size commercial kitchen, meeting rooms, a bell tower and offices.

New stained-glass windows also will be installed.

DeJulius said the church had to pay off its $10 million debt from the parish center before advancing on the new church.

The church held a financial campaign last year in conjunction with The Diocese of Pittsburgh’s “The Church Alive” campaign to raise money.

“We dovetailed our own campaign on top of it, trying to raise funds to not only pay off our existing debt, but also to raise additional monies in pledges to completely build our church,” DeJulius said.

The campaign proved to be successful as the church raised about $22 million.

“The pledges are coming in as planned,” he said.

The new church also will address St. Kilian’s “rapid” growth by having 30,000 square feet of space and will seat 1,200.

The Rev. Charles Bober, the priest of St. Kilian, previously said the church has about 11,000 parishioners.

Parishioners attend Masses at the St. Kilian Parish Center and the Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School auditorium. The high school auditorium’s capacity is 921.

The original church in Mars, which seated fewer than 250, is used solely for weddings and funerals.

People can see the construction live through the parish’s website at www.saintkilian.org. A webcam was set up in September that shows day-to-day construction work.