Franciscan University of Steubenville celebrates renovations at Christ the King Chapel with a special Mass Sunday morning. (Photo Provided)

Franciscan University of Steubenville reopened Christ the King Chapel Sunday, following a 15-month renovation and expansion that affirms the chapel’s role as the spiritual heart of campus and a living catechesis for all who enter its doors, school officials said.

Franciscan’s chapel has nearly doubled its seating capacity — from 325 to 590 — to better accommodate the growing student population and has added a new altar and tabernacle, new sacred art and stained-glass windows to beautify the space.

The $16.5 million renovation project caps off the university’s Rebuild My Church Capital Campaign, which raised $126.1 million for enhancements to academic programs, student scholarships, outreach programs and new and renovated buildings.

A Mass of Solemn Blessing, presided over by Bishop Edward M. Lohse, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Steubenville, was held Sunday.

“The beauty of this sacred edifice should reflect the even greater beauty of the community which gathers here to worship,” Lohse said. “Here, at this altar, heavenly realities will commingle with those of earth. We will bring forth the work of human hands, bread and wine and we will receive back the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ.”

He concluded by entrusting the care and ministry of the chapel to the Franciscan community, invoking the intercession of the virgin martyrs, St. Francis, St. Clare and the Blessed Virgin Mary, that Christ the King Chapel may be a place where heaven and earth meet in worship and grace.

Originally constructed in 1969, Christ the King Chapel has served generations of students, staff, faculty, friars, alumni and visitors as the center of sacramental and liturgical life on campus. With the growth of the university and increasing need for expanded seating and ministry space, the vision for a comprehensive chapel renewal took shape under the leadership of the Rev. Dave Pivonka, TOR, the university’s seventh president.

The renovated chapel includes three new side chapels, four confessionals and multiple areas for private prayer and devotion.

Expanded sacristies, rehearsal rooms for music ministry and a dedicated home for the university’s Schola Cantorum Franciscana and pipe organ ensure the chapel can continue serving the practical needs of campus worship.

Even the plaza outside the chapel will be transformed, with a statue of Christ the King, gardens, statuary and personalized bricks forming a welcoming entry into the liturgical heart of the university. The plaza will be completed later this fall.

“I am grateful to our generous alumni and friends whose vision and support have given us this beautifully renewed chapel for our Franciscan University community,” Pivonka said. “Our greatest hope is that this chapel will form saints — men and women who will love Christ, follow him and carry his grace into the world. May it always be a place of encounter, conversion and community, and may it glorify the one whose holy name it bears.”