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GREENSBORO - It's like moving out of the starter home and into a three-bedroom place after the kids come along.

For parishioners at St. Pius X Catholic Church, the story involves moving out of a 350-seat chapel into one nearly three times that size as the congregation approaches 50 years in Greensboro.

On Sunday they broke ground on the new church that they expect will be filled with century-old stained glass and have a presence on North Elm Street similar to the First Presbyterian Church that's a few blocks closer to downtown.

"It would be my hope that every Christian church would be standing-room only," the Rev. Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio said after the ground-breaking.

Dealing with standing-room only is familiar to members at St. Pius.

As of Friday, 1,248 families were listed church members.

After the small chapel was torn down, they kept meeting in a gymnasium for mass and other church functions.

The temporary home is slightly larger than the old church, which was knocked down in December for the new building.

"People actually liked it," Tom Martin, head of the church's building committee, said about moving into the gym. "They could actually get a seat."

The new, larger church won't all be shine and new polish when it opens in 2010 - the same year the parish celebrates 50 years in Greensboro.

Century-old stained glass windows and other religious items will be installed there, salvaged from older churches.

"It's going to look so much different, with a combination of stone and brick and stucco," Martin said.

"We'll have 21 stained-glass windows," he said, each originally crafted 100 years ago by one of Germany's oldest stained glass manufacturers.

The new sanctuary will allow for more newcomers, such as Steve Quagliana, who moved here from Buffalo, N.Y., four years ago.

"It was a cramped place for a lot of the masses," Quagliana said of the old chapel. He helped raise money for the new $6.5 million church.

"This parish is incredibly welcoming," he said. "You don't feel like a newcomer."

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com