Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, the archbishop of Guadalajara, said this week that the aim is to raise 70 million pesos in order to install the roof, flooring and benches, thus allowing services to be held in the huge unfinished temple. The campaign will begin officially on August 19.
The idea is to seat 12,000 people inside the church, with the atrium able to accommodate a further 50,000. The church is being built in honor of Mexico’s 25 Catholic martyrs of the Cristero War of the 1920s. It is set to be Mexico’s largest and most lavish religious edifice and cost an estimated two billion pesos.