The Chi Rho symbol above the door at 14 South Main Street is the first thing most people notice. Some recognize it immediately. Others slow down on the sidewalk, curious. Charlie Bathon, the general manager of Christ On Main, has watched this happen hundreds of times since the center opened in June 2024.
“People see it and it’s like a bear to honey,” he said.
What they find on the other side of the door is not what the building used to be. The space previously housed Dark Corner Distillery, a moonshine operation that closed in 2020. Before that, it was a soap retailer and a cosmetics store. Today, hardwood floors and period lighting frame rooms filled with Catholic books, sacramentals, and sacred art. A dedicated oratory with a rose window offers a quiet place to pray. The 3,300 square feet of a 125-year-old Main Street building have become something entirely different.
An Idea That Started on Zoom
The origin of Christ On Main has nothing to do with a building. It began during the COVID pandemic with a small group of lay Catholics who found each other through video calls and a shared observation: there was nowhere in the Upstate for a Catholic to buy a book or a rosary.
Tony Owens and Brendan Dudley, two of the early organizers, were walking down Main Street when the location at 14 South made sense. Formal planning began in 2020 and gained momentum through 2021. The inaugural public event, held August 26, 2021, drew an early crowd before any physical space existed. Bishop Emeritus Robert Guglielmone attended that night and called Christ On Main a “Catholic Invitation Center.” He described what the organizers were reaching toward: a “God-shaped hole in our hearts that only God can fill.”
From that evening, it took nearly three more years to get to the point of opening. A five-year lease was signed in April 2023. Father Jay Scott Newman, pastor of St. Mary’s Church two blocks away, blessed the property in June 2023. McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture handled the remodel, with Joseph Pazdan personally overseeing the work — donated services, completed before his death prior to the opening. On June 4, 2024, Bishop Jacques Fabre-Jeune of the Diocese of Charleston offered the formal blessing at the grand opening.
The operating entity is Veritas Catholic Information Center (VCIC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Christ On Main is its public name. The organization is a lay initiative — not under diocesan or parish direction — though it has received the encouragement of the Diocese of Charleston from the beginning.
Board chairman Jordan Roberts and vice chairman Robert Poppleton lead the organization’s governance. Poppleton, a commercial real estate professional with a philosophy background from Catholic University of America, described the center’s purpose plainly: “We want Christ on Main to be effective in sharing that there is a reason for why the saints lived their lives the way they did.”
Meeting People Where They Are
Bathon, who ran the center’s day-to-day operations from the start, spent fifty years in healthcare, education, and manufacturing before coming to Christ On Main. He holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame. He approaches his role at the center with a directness that matches his biography.
“The most important thing we do, when someone walks through the door to start a conversation, is to meet them where they are, not bludgeon them, just basically get to know them and find out what they are looking for,” he said.
That approach has drawn a wide range of visitors. Catholics returning to the faith after years away. Cradle Catholics looking for intellectual depth alongside their practice. Non-Catholics curious about what the Chi Rho symbol means. Travelers passing through — airline pilots and flight attendants are regular visitors, according to the center’s own accounting. The mailing list has grown to approximately 2,700 subscribers, roughly 60 percent of whom are tourists and visitors rather than local residents.
Board member Bill Coffey described the goal from the beginning: “We want this to be an oasis for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.”
The Programming
Christ On Main operates as something between a Catholic bookstore, a community gathering space, and a cultural center. The programming reflects all three.
Regular events include Theology on Tap, a monthly gathering for young adults and young professionals. The Calix Society, a twelve-step Catholic recovery program, meets weekly. Family movie nights offer a different pace. The oratory hosts rosary and Liturgy of the Hours on a regular schedule. Spiritual direction is available. Quiet reading space is available without any obligation.
The lecture and speaker series has brought notable voices to downtown Greenville. Theologian and Catholic apologist Scott Hahn has spoken there. Father John Riccardo of the Archdiocese of Detroit has appeared. Catholic writers Mike Aquilina and Joseph Pearce have both visited. Sister Deirdre Byrne of the Little Workers of Sacred Hearts has been on the program. In November 2025, Theology on Tap featured Father Rhett Williams, the vocations director for the Diocese of Charleston, alongside the Dominican Sisters of Nashville for a conversation on faith and vocation.
The programming is intentionally varied because the audience is intentionally broad. A center modeled after the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., Christ On Main is trying to do what the best gathering places do: give people a reason to come back.
The Community It Serves
Greenville County has approximately 60,000 Catholics. St. Mary’s, two blocks south on Main Street, is the nearest parish. Our Lady of the Rosary and Prince of Peace in Taylors serve Catholics across other parts of the county and the Upstate.
Christ On Main is not a parish and does not position itself as one. It serves as a complement to parish life — a place where someone who is curious can walk in from the sidewalk, where a parishioner from any church in the region can find a book or attend a lecture, and where the questions people carry about faith have room to be asked.
The center has drawn people at different points in their relationship with Catholicism. Brett and Caden Senno, brothers who relocated from Upstate New York to Greenville in 2022, had lapsed from the faith and were exploring evangelical services when they walked into Christ On Main looking for a rosary. They now visit twice a week and are in regular contact with the center’s community.
This is the pattern the founders hoped for. Founder Mary Dudley described it with a simplicity that captures the center’s spirit: “God is up to something in the Upstate.”
The Space on Main Street
The building itself matters to what Christ On Main is trying to do. The location on Main Street is not incidental. Visibility, foot traffic, and the proximity of Greenville’s most active commercial corridor put the center in contact with people who would never specifically seek out a Catholic resource.
The storefront’s Chi Rho inscription makes a public statement without requiring anyone to enter. The interior — with its hardwood flex space, book-filled rooms, and oratory with double doors and a rose window — rewards those who do. A conference room handles smaller gatherings. The retail floor carries Catholic Bibles, Lives of the Saints, the Catechism of the Church, books on family and motherhood and pro-life issues, along with rosaries, medals, statues, and prayer cards.
Bathon has described the job with characteristic warmth: “This job reminds me of the wedding feast of Cana. I think God saved my best wine for last.”
Christ On Main is located at 14 South Main Street in downtown Greenville, two blocks north of St. Mary’s Church. The bookstore is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Events and programming are scheduled throughout the year. For information, visit catholic.center or call (864) 236-7772.