Our History

Our original parish name is not St. Pius X, but Holy Guardian Angels. And the location is different too, at the bottom of the hill where Dudley Road joins Madison Pike (State Highway 17) near the I-275 beltway. A cemetery still owned by the parish and the former sisters’ convent building remains on the original property site.

There in Sandfordtown, KY in 1856, a log house became a Catholic school. Mass was offered there and in homes of parishioners by visiting priests. Then, in 1863, a simple new church building, also used during the week as the school, was completed on the same tract of land.

The first resident priest came to the parish in 1869 when a rectory was built. Eleven years later, in 1880, a new church structure was built in order to accommodate the size of the growing membership. Bishop Augustus Toebbe came to dedicate the new church.

Two years later, he arranged for the Benedictine Sisters to come and staff the parish school. A convent was constructed for these sisters in 1882. The school building was repaired and renovated in 1886.

In March 1909, the previous school building was torn down in order to make way for a new and larger school building. In 1911 the church edifice was also repaired and improved.

In 1954, a donation of 23 acres of farmland on Dudley Road allowed for future parish expansion. This is the location of the present church and school site.

Bishop William T. Mulloy issued a decree of establishment of a new parish from the former Holy Guardian Angels Parish in 1955. Instead of maintaining the same parish name, the Bishop formally changed it to Saint Pius X in recognition of the newly canonized saint.

An official groundbreaking ceremony for a combination school and church was held May 29, 1955. Bishop Mulloy appointed Fr. Hugh Milligan as the pastor of the new St. Pius X Parish. The first Mass was offered in the new church on June 1, 1958.

On September 3, 1958, the new school opened with an initial enrollment of 355 students. At the same time the school was completed, a parish rectory house was built.

In 1982, Monsignor Hugh Milligan entered into retirement and Fr. Paul Tenhundfeld was appointed the new pastor. In 1987, ground breaking occurred for the present free-standing new church building. Upon completion in 1988, the old church was converted into a school gym.

In 1990, Fr. Douglas Fortner became the new pastor following Father Tenhundfeld’s retirement. Fr. Robert Wehage was appointed to be the pastor in 1999.

On June 6, 2004, a very large addition to the school and parish facilities was completed. It provided much needed repairs and renovations, more than doubling the parish school and administration and recreational space.

In January, 2008, Fr. Thomas Robbins became the pastor. Seven years later when he retired, Fr. Baiju Kidaagen, was installed as our current pastor, on August 16, 2015.