History of SPX - 2010's

The year 2010 began with very cold weather, cold for us!  Morning temperatures in the teens.  We had over 12 inches of very heavy snow over 24 hours in January.  This was quite the new experience for many Texans.  But the sky is clear and bright and we hope for a very good year ahead.  One of the bright points was the appointment of Ken Pettifer as the facilities manager at St. Pius X.


The auction committee proudly announced the Nieswiadomy family as the year's honored family.  Long-time parishioners, Ben and Rose incorporate all those qualities that we associate with leaders in the Catholic Community.  Their commitment to Catholic Education and the fine job of raising their family are just a couple of the attributes we associate with these special people.

 Each year the parish has a carnival to celebrate community and to raise a few dollars to support the parish.  This year the parish decided to hold an OktoberFest in ...October!  But to transition to that date and make sure the withdrawals for the parishioners were not great, a Community Event was held in April.  This event featured rides, food, entertainment and a car show.  Everyone had a wonderful time as we looked forward to October.



Seminarian Emmett Hall began a 6 week service to the parish in June of 2010.  The seminarians use this time to become acquainted with parish life.
 

Each year the graduating 8th grade class from St. Pius X School pools money they raise during the year to present a gift to the parish.  This year's gift is a beautiful bronze tiger depicting the mascot of St. Pius X.  This shows Fr. Guadagnoli and Fr. Morris blessing the tiger during the Feast of St. Pius X celebration weekend August 19th through August 21st.  We thank the class of 2009-2010 for this very beautiful gift.

As history shows, change is a constant that never seems to phase our parish.  We roll with the punches.  At the end of the 2009-10 school term, Dr. Carol Newman (left) stepped down to spend more time with her wonderful family.  Into that breach stepped our new principal, Cindy Elwood.  The parish welcomed Cindy and her family and looks forward to her tenure.
 

At the end of June Fr. Arturo Kannee left St. Pius X and the Diocese of Dallas and moved to Maimi Florida.  Fr. Arturo Came to St. Pius X from Venezuela and was with us for almost 5 years during which he made a big impression on the parishioners.

The parish welcomed Fr. Lauro Gonzalez to the parish as the new parochial vicar on August 20th of 2010.  We were please to have him with us for the celebration of the life of St. Pius X, a celebration that began on August 19th with adoration and concluded Saturday the 20th.


As always the summer is a busy time for the facilities.  In addition to the normal painting, cleaning and redoing floors the maintenance department oversaw the replacement of the primary building, parish hall and parish center roofs.  A cool project was the remake of the school entrance and the addition of a sign indicating the entrance.  The fence project along Materhorn Drive was completed after being started in the summer of 2009.  Previously the eighth grade classes of 2007-08 and 2008-09 donated money to put in lights in the back parking lot along the sidewalk leading to Communion Hall.  This sign project was also completed this summer.  Makes you down right tired doesn't it?


The parish also welcomed Father Rudy Garcia.  Father Rudy heads the diocesan vocations office but he is in residence at St. Pius X.




In September we were very pleased to have two seminarians working with the middle school students at St. Pius X Parish in our Youth Ministry.  Matthew Giacomuzzi and Joseph deOrbeyozo in their Sophomore years at Holy Trinity Seminary are fulfilling their pastoral placement year activities with our parish.


OktoberFest was a smashing success!  Once again the organizations of St. Pius X, this year under the leadership of the Hispanic Community, stepped up and not only provided the patrons with a good time but the members had a good time as well.  This being our first year with an OktoberFest we decided to spread it out over two days.  This turned out to be a very good decision even though the workload for the organizations doubled.  Thanks to Alicia Mendoza and her teams of volunteers for another wonderful event.

The Men's Club did their fall planting once again.  Each fall and spring the men of the parish replant the Msgr. Weinzapfel garden in the plaza and they plant some color in the beds around the plaza.


Christmas is such a very special time of the year and once again our church was resplendent.  On the left we have Fr. Garcia placing the baby Jesus in the crib.  This beautiful Bethlehem scene is a very popular picture taking opportunity.  Later the three wise men are added to the display.

Boy Troops 746 and 865, chartered by St. Pius X, congratulated Ian Boriack, Charles Brydon, Jacob Chavira, Dean Congdon, Ash Coursey, John Leos, Matt Leos, Houston Mahdak, and Josh Pereira for their advancement to the rank of Eagle Scout.  St. Pius X has a long tradition of young men reaching this highest rank in Scouting for boys.
 

The year 2010 closed with Lilia Luna leaving the parish office staff and 2011 opened with Roxanne Weaver taking Lilia's position.  Roxanne follows the path of Cindy Pierotti who also started as a school secretary before making the move over to the parish office.





The first really big event of 2011 was the school auction.  Each year many volunteers work to make this a wonderful experience for all involved.  The honored family this year is the Newman family.  Jim and Carol Newman are long-time parishioners and Carol (Dr. Newman eventually) was a long-time employee of St. Pius X.  Her last position with St. Pius X was as principal.  The three daughters of Jim and Carol, Keri, Jennifer and Laura all graduated from St. Pius X.  During the auction alumni Mike Neiswadomy (gray shirt left of center picture on right) donated $5,000 toward scholarships at St. Pius X.  He then invited all the alumni in the audience to come join him in singing the St. Pius X Fight Song.  Well okay, no one said the night was perfect!




In March we were pleased to have Minh Huynh assume the position of Cafeteria manager.  Minh has both a business and culinary background.




In April we had our normal Easter Vigil Mass on April 23rd and welcomed 19 new Catholics into the faith.  In the picture to the right Pastor Guadagnoli is flanked to his left by parochial vicar Fr. Gonzalez and to his right by seminarian Zach Webb and Fr. Lloyd Morris.  We had additional seminarians including Emmett Hall (standing on far right), Matthew Giacomuzzi and Joseph deOrbeyozo and many altar servers.
 

St. Pius X Church was dedicated on the feast of St. Pius X on September 3, 1968 by Bishop Thomas Gorman.  The architectural firm of George E. Dahl of Dallas was selected by the parish building committee the previous year and the lead architect for our church design was John E. Barthel.  In addtion to the church building and rectory, Mr. Barthel designed everything in the church including the altars, tabernacle, holy water fonts, baptismal font and cabinet, original candlestick holders, the Resurrected Christ status above the altar, Assumption of Mary statue, as well as the Holy Family statue in the courtyard donated by the Barrett family.  Mr. Barthel was present at the 40th anniversary celebration of the building of the church in 2009 and was recognized for his architectural contributions.   Msgr. Thomas Weinzapfel and John Barthel remained very close friends throughout the years.  We were saddened by the news that Mr. Barthel passed away on April 2, 2011 at the age of 88.

On April 27th the parish purchased a house at 2726 San Vicente.  This house will be used for future needs.  This is the first time since 1993 that the parish has purchased additional property.


A small contingent of parish staff presented and Fr. Gonzalez accepted, with great humor, a 'new car' after staff meeting on May 18th.  Fr. Gonzalez has been with us since August of 2010 but has not yet purchased a car.  This has been the topic of much merriment capped off by the official gift of this fine vehicle donated by the Ring family. 





And the fun just never ends.  The picture to the left is an outing at Laser Quest featuring participation by Fr. Gonzalez and Deacon Zach.  This was an auction item that raised money for the school.




June of 2011 began with sad news for many of our parishioners and parishioners of various parishes in the diocese as we learned that Msgr. Charles King passed away on June 1.  Msgr. King was with our parish from 1958 to 1966. 

On the staffing front we are always disappointed when we lose important members of our staff.  In June Josie Pacheco, who has served on staff since July of 2000, stepped down as director of the CCD program.  Maria Quiroz assumes the position of director.  Maria served Josie as an unpaid assistant for many years.  John F. Farrell who began working for the parish as Chief Financial Officer in the fall of 2000 retired at the end of June.

There were a couple of major maintenance projects for the summer.  Both were at the gym.  The first was the replacement of 40 tons of heating and air on the roof.  Also the original gym floor was replaced.  This multi-purpose facility is used for not only athletic events such as volleyball, basketball, and indoor football practice but is also used for a variety of events for the parish.  Many events such as the annual carnival, auction, various meetings, and wedding receptions are held there which requires a special floor.  A sport court of the type that the NBA D League uses was the preferred option.  St. Pius X has one of the premier gym facilities in the area and this floor adds to that prestige.  The gift from the eighth grade class to the parish this year was new wall pads for the gym.


In August Anita St. Clair came on board to lead Adult Faith Formation.  Anita first came to our area after fleeing hurricane Katrina in 2005.



On September 12, Sam Civello began his tenure as Business Manager of the parish.  Sam and his family were long-time parishioners and in fact Sam graduated from St. Pius X School.  Sam was formally the Financial Manager at St. Michael parish in Garland.



The 2011 5^th Grade Girls Volleyball team scored the 1^st Official WIN on the St Pius Gym Floor on Saturday September 10th.  The St Pius Tigers beat the Bearcats of St Monica in two games winning both matches 25-21; the team is coached by Terri Colley and Marsha Maldonado.


The auction committee selected the Chuck and Diane Paradowski family and their parents as the honored family.  Chuck has followed in the mold of his parents Bo and Bobbi by demonstrating never ending energy in the promotion of the school.  By the same token Diane learned the art of service to her church from her parents Bob and Jo.  In addition to the many contributions to the church and school, Chuck is well known as the MC of the school auction each year.  We thank all for their dedication to the Catholic faith and the great job each has done in raising their families.  The auction was once again successful and a great deal of fun.




2012 is a big year for priest assignments.  July came and Fr. Lauro Gonzalez was reassigned to St. Mark parish in Plano.  His replacement is the newly ordained Fr. Paolo Capra. 



In August of 2012 Johnnie Cardinale, the organist for the parish for many, many years (more years than she will let us say) finally began a well deserved retirement.  While neither retiring nor really retired we expect to see her at various events in the coming years.  We very much appreciate not only Johnnie's dedicated service to the parish but that of her husband Joe who periodically plays music at our Masses.  Donna Boccabella took up playing the organ where Johnnie left off.

The legacy gift from the eighth grade class for 2012 was a bust of St. Pius X that is displayed in the breezeway of the Media Center.


In October Father Rudy Garcia the diocesan vocations director in residence at St. Pius X transferred to the Cathedral downtown as Rector.  And in November Fr. Abraham Thomas joined the parish.  Quite a bit of activity!




On February 28, 2013 a very vital early member of the church passed away.  George McIngvale was a leader in the development of St. Pius X Parish as well as Bishop Lynch H.S..  The McIngvale family donated the main stained glass window in the church.  The baseball field at Bishop Lynch H.S. is also named for the family.  He passed away in Houston.  His many accomplishments and contributions are appreciated to this day.

March 26, 2013 was also the day that a very dear parishioner Virginia Hemmi died.  Virginia and her husband Bob lead the St. Pius X CCD program for over 20 years.  Even after stepping down as director Virginia played a vital role in the program for many years to come.  We appreciate the dedication to the parish that both Bob and Virginia displayed.

April 13, 2013 turned out to be a very big night as the auction benefiting the school and honoring the Farrell Family is held.  The record for the amount raised by the auction was vastly exceeded and the record for scholarships donated smashed.  $70,000 just for scholarships almost doubled the previous record for scholarships raised at the auction.  This is a strong testament to the faith that our parishioners have in our school and a tribute to the many fine contributions of the Farrell Family to the parish over the last 50 years.  We thank all that participated in this fine night.

Over the summer our organist Donna Boccabella moved and Julie Trausch joined our parish staff as organist.  Julie has reinvigorated the Mass music by adding another choir to the Mass schedule.

Innovation was a hallmark of St. Pius X under the leadership of Msgr. Weinzapfel.  Recognizing the trend in spouses joining the workforce, Msgr. Tom saw the need for Catholic day care to support these families.  As a result the St. Pius X Day Care was started in 1977 under the direction of Lydia Montgomery.  But times change so in 2013, under a directive issued by the Diocese, all day cares including the St. Pius X Early Care program were to be either closed or separated from the parishes to become their own stand alone legal entity much like Catholic Charities, The Catholic Foundation and other fine Catholic organizations.  St. Pius X chose to separate rather than close our very successful program so as of September 1st the St. Pius X Early Care became a distinct and separate business operation.  They continue to lease space from the parish until other arrangements can be made for their permanent location.
 
The school continues to be the anchor of the parish.  The 2013-2014 school term began with excitement.  Once again the school goes above and beyond to offer a full curriculum that includes enrichment classes.  Begun in the 2004-05 school term, enrichment classes expand the horizons of the students beyond the core subjects.  This year woodworking, team sports, film study, one act play, drama, outdoor adventure, and yearbook are offered.  The picture to the right is a woodworking class where among other things they made keepsake shelves.

2014 is the 60th anniversary of the parish and throughout the year Alicia Mendoza has organized a number of events to help mark this milestone for the parish.  The first event is our annual auction held this year on February 22nd.  Unlike years past, instead of honoring one family, all of the founding families were honored as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations for the parish.  Turnout was great and the proceeds of the night go to the scholarship fund at the school.


In April Robert Fuentes, a long-time parishioner, joined the maintenance staff as Facilities Manager as part of a re-organization of the department.  Robert worked in a similar capacity for St. Bernard parish for 20 years and we are very pleased to have him on board.


2014 is a year of many personnel changes.  At the end of the school term Minh Huynh left as cafeteria manager and the school contracted with Signature Services to run the cafeteria.  Fr. Capra was reassigned during the summer and seminarian John Le arrived for his pastoral year.  This has been a popular parish for seminarians visiting with us.  At the end of August Sam Civello left as Business Manager.  The parish began reorganizing business operations and created the interim post of COO.  John Farrell who retired in 2011 returned in mid September on a temporaty basis to lead the reorganization effort for Fr. Guadagnoli as acting COO until the job is completed and a replacement is named.

In mid October the position held by Roxanne Weaver was eliminated and Roxanne moved on to St. Augustine parish.  Cindy Pierotti and Martha Cano now handle the front office.

On October 31st Jim Farrell, a 30 year employee of the church, retired.  Jim started his career when the Day Care was started up under Lydia Montgomery.  In 2000 Jim was promoted to Parish Accountant, the position from which he retired.  The parish thanks Jim for his valuable service.

Concurrently we welcomed Stephanie Burgess as the Finance Manager on November 1st.  Stephanie has a strong business and accounting background.  She is a graduate of St. Pius X, Bishop Lynch H.S. and the University of North Texas.



On November 17th Joyce Barta was named teacher of the year at the school.  We congratulate Joyce on her hard work as a teacher and appreciate her efforts on behalf of our students.



2015 started off terrific in many ways but the biggest blessing is that Fr. Guadagnoli announced the hiring of Chris Sanders to be the principal replacing Cindy Elwood.  Fr. Guadagnoli worked with his Principal Search Committee consisting of Ginger Farrell, Mike Savage, Debbie Merkle, Christie Morel, Pat Hess and John Farrell in making his selection.   We look forward to the Chris Sanders experience. 

Another wonderful aspect of the beginning of the year is that rain, sleet and snow all made appearances and have helped raise the lake levels surrounding us.  We have been experiencing drought conditions and this is a great start to the year.  And the kids had snow in March!

The parish was saddened by the news that Mary Miskulin died on March 12.  Know by many as Miss Mary, she worked for 37 years in the school cafeteria and ran a tight ship in the dishwashing area.  In addition Mary made thousands of rosaries for missionaries all over the world and was a daily communicant.  Many have wonderful memories of trying to keep up with Mary.  We will miss her.

Deacon Donald Schnurr passed away on March 21st in Lakeway, TX.  Deacon Schnurr was ordained in 1978 in a class of five from St. Pius X and was assigned here for many years.  He also taught at St. Paul in Richardson and St. Michael in Garland before moving to Lakeway about 10 years ago.  Deacon Schnurr was honored by the Dallas Morning News with the Texas flag at half staff at their headquarters to honor his 30 years of service to the newspaper. 

Once again we enjoyed a great auction for the benefit of our school.  Held on April 11th this year we honored the Ron Schweers family.  Ron and his family have been instrumental in the success of our parish.  Ron's daughter Kim continues the tradition of service as a teacher in our school. 

Also at the school Tana Scott and Stephanie Wahlstrom were named assistant principals for the 2015-16 school term.  These are new positions.  Tana will have wide ranging responsibilities including curriculum development and implementation.  Tana previously taught at the school in Junior High.  Stephanie spent the last few years as the computer teacher.  But as everyone knows kids enter school having a very good grasp of computer and phone technology even at the pre-school level.  Therefore the position of computer teacher was eliminated and Stephanie will focus on technology implementation in the classroom for both teachers and students.  In addition she will be the director of after-school care.

The Diocese announced that effective July 1st the is to be a priest exchange between St. Pius X and St. Jude in Allen.  Fr. Abraham who has been with St. Pius X since October 2012 goes to St. Jude in exchange for Fr. Patrick Olaleye and a player to be named later.  Okay the player to be named later is made up but the rest is true.  Fr. Patrick was ordained for the Catholic Diocese of Ibadan, Nigeria.  In 2007 he was sent on mission to the Diocese of Dallas. Hehas served as Parochial Vicar at St. Ann's Parish in Coppell, Texas and St. Jude.  In 2011 Fr. Patrick earned a masters in Pastoral Ministry with a concentration in Health Care Ministry.  We bid a fond farewell to Fr. Abraham and welcome Fr. Patrick to the parish.

Late breaking news, the player to be named later in fact turns out to be true.  Not only will we be welcoming Fr. Patrick but we will also welcome Rev. Ivan Asencio from St. Francis parish in Frisco where the pastor is Msrg. Larry.  Their loss, our gain.

Ron Rhodes donated a new plant stand for beneath the statue of Mary in our church.  This beautiful shelf is made from 100 walnut that came from a special place in Ron's family.  Ron also built our presider's chair, music boards and St. Vincent DePaul contribution box in the foyer of the church.

In May of this year our own Fr. Morris was honored by the Knights of Columbus with Gold Wings for his tireless effort on behalf of Right to Life.  Fr. Morris is only the third Texan to be so honored.  Also in a reorganization of duties Maria Pacheco was replaced as CCD Director by Samantha Patterson.  In her new role Samantha has responsibility for Youth Ministry, Adult Faith Formation, CCD and the nursery program that is to be launched at the end of the summer.

In July of 2015 we discovered that we had Batman aka Fr. Ivan
among  us.  The Batcave in the St. Pius X Wayne Manor has a parking spot reserved especially for Batman.

On the Seminarian front James Dorman began his pastoral year at St. Pius while John Le completed his.  Alex Fry began a 6 week internship at the parish.

At the end of July  our church organist Julie Trausch replaced Anne Marie Boeding as music director for the parish.  During the summer seminarian John Lei completed his pastoral year with us and we welcomed seminarian James Dorman for his pastoral year.  James has immersed himself in learning the business of the parish.

And another chapter closed when the St. Pius X Early Care program moved off campus.  In 2013 the Diocese sought to separate day care from the mission of those parishes that had a day care.  From that point Early Care operated as a separate entity and leased space from the parish.  That lease term expired and they moved completely off campus but near by and will continue providing great day care assistance to all families that are interested.

And after returning to help the parish as COO, John Farrell completed his temporary one year assignment on September 30, 2015 and Stephanie Burgess, the Finance Manager since November 2014 assumed the position of CFO October 1st.  Jim Farrell who had retired in 2015 rejoined the parish staff on a part-time basis to assist Stephanie with the book keeping.

On December 23rd Monsignor Weinzapfel, still the face of St. Pius X Parish, celebrated the 70th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood with a marvelous Mass and reception at the parish.  Msgr. W. has the distinction of being the longest serving priest the Diocese of Dallas has ever had.  There was in attendance over 900 well wishers of clergy, family and the family of St. Pius X at his Mass and reception.   This included Bishop Farrell, 30 priests, 3 other Bishops, Color Corps members, Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem and the Order of Malta.  All this would not have been possible without the leadership of Jill Castloo and her core team which included Peggy Ruby, Teri Dres, Kathy Milano, Johnnie Cardinale, Denise Lucas and Rafiel Fierro.  They were supported by 60 volunteers and the 1995-1996 Ladies Society board.

Sadly the following day, December 24th Monsignor tripped and broke his hip.  This was his second broken hip in 13 months.  After the first one he had a wonderful recovery.  Unfortunately not so with this one.

2015 ended with the news that on the 31st of December, Mr. Ron Accomando passed away.  Ron served as the second lay principal of St. Pius X School beginning in 1987 and continuing until mid-year 1995.  The parish is thankful for his incredibly strong and visionary leadership.  Together with Msgr. Weinzapfel they made St. Pius X one of the strongest schools and parishes in the diocese.  He was truly a blessed and talented man and we were so lucky to have him.  Ron will be remembered fondly and respectfully by students, faculty and parents for his tireless efforts on behalf of our great parish.  Although his family, especially Adda and Irene will miss him we know that another icon of our parish, Betty Jennings was there in heaven to make sure he had everything he needed for the afterlife journey.

January 1, 2016 started just as 2015 ended, another chapter closed.  Our friend, the longest-serving piest in the Diocese of Dallas, Pastor of St. Pius X for 40 years, the great Pastor Emeritus of St. Pius X Parish, Monsignor Thomas W. Weinzapfel died.  The grief of the parish is profound but we so appreciate having had him as our leader.  Born on August 1, 1921 in Scotland, TX but raised in Muenster the world was blessed to have him for 94 years.  He entered St. John Seminary in San Antonio with the encouragement of Fr. Augustine Danglmayr who himself later became a Bishop.  On December 23, 1945 Thomas Weinzapfel was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Dallas by Bishop Joseph P. Lynch at the Sacred Heart Cathedral.  Interestingly Bishop Lynch was the only Dallas Bishop buried in the priest circle at Calvary Hill Cemetery.  However Bishop Farrell corrected this by having Bishop Lynch moved from that location to the Masoleum with the other former Bishops of Dallas.  Msrg. Weinzapfel will be buried in the plot formally occupied by the man who ordained him, Bishop Lynch.  There are always interesting connections.  Msrg. W was an early and ardent supporter of a new high school in East Dallas which eventually was built in 1963 and named Bishop Lynch.  Bishop Gorman appointed Fr. Weinzapfel as pastor of St. Pius X parish on May 24, 1956 after he served assignments in Texarkana, Dallas and Valley View and almost single handedly revived the Texas Catholic newspaper in 1954.  Upon his arrival the parish had approximately 700 families.  In March of 1961 Rev. Weinzapfel was elevated by Pope John XXIII to the office of Papal Chamberlain and he became Monsignor Weinzapfel.  After 40 years as pastor, Msrg. Weinzapfel retired from active parish management in December of 1996 when the parish had over 5,000 families.  He continued to be an active priest right up to his last few days saying his last Mass at St. Michael parish in Garland on Christmas Eve.  Anyone that met him came away with lasting memories and probably heard a favorite parting wish for you, God love ya.  Hundreds gathered for his rosary and visitation on January 5th and the church at St. Pius X was filled to capacity on January 6th for his funeral where dozens of his fellow priests concelebrated the Mass with Bisop-elect Greg Kelly, Cistercian Abbot Father Peter Verhalan and Bishop Kevin Joseph Farrell.  Msgr. Henry Petter, pastor at St. Ann in Coppell and a formally young St. Pius X boy who became a priest provided the homily.  Afterward Msgr. Tom was buried in the Priests' Circle at Calvary Hill Cemetery. 

An interesting side note to Msgr. Weinzapfel's internment is that Bishop Joseph Patrick Lynch was the only deceased Bishop of Dallas not buried with the other deceased Bishops of the Dallas Diocese.  Instead he was buried in the Priest's Circle.  Bishop Farrell corrected this shortly after his arrival in the Diocese.  Bishop Lynch was moved into a new coffin but kept on the cowboy boots that he originally wore to his grave and placed in the mausoleum with the other Bishops.  Msgr. Weinzapfel more than anyone was responsible for the building of a high school in East Dallas, the one now named Bishop Lynch.  Through the good graces of Bishop Farrell, Msgr. Tom's coffin now occupies the former resting place of Bishop Lynch.  You do not often get the opportunity to interact with a legend and the parishioners of St. Pius X were the luckiest folks in the world to have such a long association with this wonderful servant of the Lord.

The annual auction for the benefit of the school was held in the Spring of 2016 and honored the Yoxall family.  Pat and Midge Yoxall were part of the strong families that built St. Pius X into what it is today.  We were so pleased that Midge could be joined at the auction by her 5 children, Mike, Helen, Dan, Kevin and Tom all being St. Pius X and Bishop Lynch graduates.  We know that Pat was certainly looking down from his final resting place.   Under the direction of Melanie Duke and Rachel Russell, both St. Pius X and Bishop Lynch graduates themselves, the auction was a tremendous success and helped us rebound from a disappointing auction the previous year!

In April Alicia Mendoza stepped down from the job of Development and Communications Director.  The duties of that position were redistributed to other members of the staff.


During the summer Samantha Patterson stepped down as Religious Education and Youth Director.  We appreciate Sam's dedication to her job and wish her the very best.  Ryan Buchanan is the new Religious Education and Youth Director.  We are excited to have Ryan and his family join our St. Pius X family.  Ryan came to us from Denison, TX.


Two major renovations were started over the summer of 2016 beginning in July.  The first was a major overhaul of the two lower bathrooms at the school.  They were completely gutted and made ADA accessible in addition to re-tiling and making them look great.  Frank Puskarich was the driving force behind getting this done both financially and with project management.  Many thanks to Frank.  Also the Catholic Foundation and the estate of Mary Julien Hughes provided substantial contributions to the cost of the project.  The second major change is in the Parish Hall.  The Parish Hall was the original on-site church for the parish but was converted to an auditorium (as per the original master plan from the 50's).  Mr. Robert (Bob) Hemmi built a kitchen in what was originally the cry room during the 90's.  This facility gets quite a bit of use and the time had come for an update.  New countertops, tile,  and equipment were installed and the foyer brightened up with a great tile job and paint.  A special thanks goes to Frank Puskarich for whom neither project would be entirely successful.  We appreciate his generousity.




Also in July of 2016 Maria Canelo who had worked in the school office since July of 2014 transferred to the church office as a receptionist.



In a surprise our principal Chris Sanders resigned in August.  Although he was only with us for one year we will miss his enthusiasm and great leadership and of course wish only the best for Chris.  Fortunately we have Tana Scott stepping in as interim principal.  Tana spent last school term as one of two assistant principals and she will be helped by the other assistant principal Stephanie Wahlstom.  A milestone for the school with the 2016-17 term was the welcoming of Emily Duke who is the very first third generation student to attend St. Pius X School.  Her mother Melanie Duke class of 1998 and her grandfather John Farrell class of 1971 are pictured here with Emily class of 2025.

Seminarian Emmett Hall spent 6 weeks in service to the parish in June of 2010.   Labor Day weekend he spent time with our parishioners as Fr. Emmett Hall!  We are proud of Emmett and wish him well in all his endeavors in his service.

The 2017 school auction in April honored the Ruby family.  The Ruby's participation in the parish is invaluable.  Len and Peggy's four children all attended St. Pius X before graduating from Bishop Lynch H.S. on their way to successful careers and lives.  Peggy at one time worked at our Day Care and both Len and Peggy have served on multiple boards and committees.   We thank them for their many known and untold contributions to the parish.  Once again the auction under the chairmanship of Rachel Russell and Margaret White with auctioneer extraordinaire Chuck Paradowski was a tremendous success.

In May we received quite a bit of clergy news.  Our Fr. Ivan Asencio is reassigned to St. Joseph in Waxahachie, Pastor Guadagnoli is reassigned to St. Monica parish and Fr. Salvador Guzman is coming to us from St. Michael in McKinney to be our new pastor.  These moves are all effective July 1.  Also announced was that our former pastor and a graduate of St. Pius X School,  Msrg. Larry Pichard is retiring.   He will be replaced as Pastor of St. Francis in Frisco by Fr. Rudy Garcia who was a priest in residence with us in the early part of this decade while he was the Diocesan Vocations Director.  That appointment will also take place July 1 although Fr. Larry will not retire until August.  Fr. Larry will relocate to within St. Pius X's geographical boundaries and we look forward to his participation in our parish again.



After serving as the interim principal for a year Tana Scott was named principal by pastor Guadagnoli.



2017 was a tumultuous year for our church administrative staff.  Rosie Bibianco joined the staff as Fr. Sal's assistant in August.  Jeremy Saldana left our employ but fortunately we were able to retain him as contract labor.  Jeremy is an ace with our technology.  At the end of September Stephanie Burgess the CFO since 2015 resigned as did the part-time accountant Jim Farrell.  At the end of the year our music minister since 2013 Julie Trausch departed.  Juan Davila took up the slack for Julie and Deacon Shawn French came on as Business Manager.

As we started the new year of 2018 turnover became the leading story.  During the year we lost Ryan Buchanan the Youth minister since 2016, Juan Davila the Music Minister resigned.  Maria Canelo left the church office but we were able to retain her at the school.  Rosie Bibianco also departed. 

Deacon Francis (Huy Huynh) was assigned to St. Pius X in June not only as a Deacon but to use his accounting skills to help out the business office.  Deacon Francis has been active in the church for many years both at St. Pius X as a member of the Finance Council and at St. Peter Vietnamese Church. 

The 2018 school auction in March honored an organization this year that continues to provide service to the Parish and to the School, The Men's Club.  This organization has roots going back to almost the very beginning of the parish.  As with many startup parishes what we lacked in money we more than made up for in human contributions.   That tradition continues with the Men's Club.  They are called upon by our principal to work on projects for the school and for the parish they plant our gardens twice a year.  In addition they are known for their military precision in frying loads of turkeys for Thanksgiving.  We are pleased to recognize their many efforts and financial gives to the parish over the years.  As a token of appreciation the Club was presented with hand made barbeque tools in recognition of their committment to serve teacher luncheons, cook for parish events and for their monthly Friday night gatherings for fellowship.

The 2019 school auction in February honored Msgr. Larry Pichard and his St. Pius X graduating class of 1961.  A number of that class returned for the event and this was just great fun.  And successful!  The purpose of the auction is to raise money to benefit the school.  Opportunities to participate in either the silent auction, live auction or just by donating for scholarships are available that night.  The co-chairs this year were Melanie Duke and Rachel Russell and of course our master of ceremonies Chuck Paradowski was a tremendous contributor.

February/March was a busy time for staffing.  Daniel Aaron was hired as music minister to replace Juan Davila who left the previous October.  Shawn French left as business manager.  Michele Baker was hired as Fr. Sal's assistant and also cantors at Mass.  Although not officially assigned to the parish, Deacon David Banowsky was given an assignment by Bishop Burns to come assist the Business Office with daily operations and to help hire a new Business Manager.

Parish life is always a time of beginnings and endings; a time of growth and optimism.  We currently have weekly Mass attendance of over 5,000 with new parishioners moving in each week.  We are a recognized Christian community since 1954, a time marked by joy, sadness, comings and goings, reaching out to others, and ministering to our own. We are composed of smaller communities like the Men's Club, Ladies Society, Over 55 Club, Guadalupanas, Charismatics, Legionairies, Eucharistic Ministers, ushers, lectors, teachers, staff and dedicated parishioners working together to grow in Christ and proclaim the Gospel in Casa View.  We follow our church motto to "Love One Another".  We have a place in our church for everyone.

We will continue to be a Christian community, blessed with wonderful leadership.  We look forward with faith and hope to the future, confident that God's Holy Spirit will enable us to respond to the needs of His people and our community as we have done in the past.  We invite you to be a part of our family.

Among others we thank the following for their help in documenting the history of St. Pius X on our website.

Debbie Hutchison
Steve Landregan
Bob Edmondson
John F. Farrell