After Yearlong Project, Church Doors Open Sunday

A new $3-million church will be dedicated noon Sunday in a ceremony that will mark the culmination of a yearlong building project.

The 13,000-square-foot St. Bernardine of Siena Catholic Church, on Calvert Street was needed to accommodate the church’s growing congregation--now numbering 2,300 families--and to replace an outdated sanctuary that was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, said the Rev. Msgr. Paul T. Dotson.

“The other building was plain and simple,” said Dotson, a pastor. “This building is simple too, but in a different way.”

The new 850-seat church blends Old World and contemporary styles through the use of stone flooring, dark crown molding, skylights and exposed steel beams.

The original church’s bell tower, stained glass and carved renderings of the Stations of the Cross, depicting the suffering and death of Jesus, were incorporated into the new building.

Construction crews broke ground for the new building a year ago, Dotson said.