SEWICKLEY - An ultra-inclusive splinter congregation founded by a priest who left the Roman Catholic Church this spring is gradually taking root in this upscale Pittsburgh suburb.

For anyone who doubts that, the Rev. William Hausen points to Christ Hope Ecumenical Catholic Church's four-page bulletin, complete with corporate sponsors printed on the back, a 12-member parish council and an inaugural church picnic that drew about 100 people last weekend.

While the initial surge of newcomers is over, Hausen said he's starting to develop a steady following. Gone are the 300- to 400-person crowds that filled the hotel ballroom he rented when the church opened in May to headlines about his excommunication from the Pittsburgh diocese. Now, three weekend Masses draw a combined total of about 120 people.

"At the beginning, there was a lot of curiosity," Hausen said. "During the summer it became slow, but now people are starting to come regularly, they're starting to get past the fear of excommunication."

Hausen was referring to a diocesan statement that those who attended his church would be excommunicated. The church later clarified that those who formally joined Hausen's church couldn't consider themselves in "good standing," but could return to the Catholic church if they relented.

"Things are just beyond my wildest expectations, we're growing," Hausen said.

Hausen said the church is collecting enough money at Masses to pay his $1,000 monthly salary; the $500 monthly salary of his music director; $300 a week to Sewickley Country Inn for two rooms - a 70-seat chapel and an adjoining social room/church office; and still have $12,000 in savings.

The church is also looking for donated land on which to build a small prefabricated church, or to buy an abandoned church.

Hausen has married five couples since starting the church, and says he's got another 10 weddings scheduled by year's end.

Trina Sparico, 30, and her husband Anthony, 42, were married Aug. 7. They're typical of Hausen's congregants: Anthony is a divorced Catholic and Trina converted at age 21. But when Trina Sparico acknowledged that she disagreed with church doctrine on birth control, a diocesan priest refused to marry them, she said.

"My husband and I are definitely the kind of people he wants to reach, those who have somehow been snubbed," Trina Sparico said.

But William Dinges, an associate professor of theology and religious studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., said the inclusive style of Hausen's church - its belief in having no set beliefs - has its own logical problems.

"When a movement makes the point that it's non-creedal, that's creedal in itself," Dinges said.

And while the initial publicity has died down, it's still creating challenges for the young church. For example, Hausen announced Sunday that another priest would soon be joining. But that priest on Monday told Hausen that he was withdrawing because of concerns over the publicity.