Father CookCHARLOTTE — Bishop Michael Martin, OFM Conv., announced today that Father William Christian Cook has been assigned to serve as pastor of St. Pius X Parish in Greensboro, effective Sept. 6.
He succeeds the late Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, the parish’s longtime pastor who died July 19 after a short battle with cancer.
Father Cook, 57, comes to St. Pius X after serving as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Swannanoa and Immaculate Conception Parish in Hendersonville.
“I am humbled and honored to follow Monsignor Marcaccio, who did so much to build up St. Pius Parish and School over 24 years,” Father Cook said, “and while nobody can replace Monsignor’s style and good humor, I will do everything I can to embrace the people of St. Pius and the Greensboro community in the way he did.”
Father Cook was ordained for the Diocese of Charlotte on June 17, 2017, after working as a lawyer for more than a decade. He returns to Greensboro, where he began his priestly career serving as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Grace Parish for two years. He then became pastor at Immaculate Conception Parish and Immaculata School in Hendersonville in 2019, where he oversaw a significant school renovation, and was assigned to St. Margaret Mary Parish in 2023.
Father Cook announced his departure at his weekend Masses and in a letter to his parish on Saturday.
“Although I was your pastor for little more than a year, we continued to grow closer to God, built friendships, and accomplished much during our time together,” he wrote. “I also grew to love you, and the special parish of St. Margaret Mary. I will miss you so very much and hope to visit often.”
A new pastor has not yet been appointed, but Father Cook assured his parish that “Bishop Martin took great care in deciding who would succeed Monsignor Marcaccio,” and is working just as deliberately “to find the right priest” to pastor St. Margaret Mary.
Father Cook recognizes providence in his new assignment, which he said may have been foretold during his growing friendship with Monsignor Marcaccio.
“In what may have been a sign, I would often tell Monsignor Marcaccio that I would be happy to follow him at St. Pius whenever he retired. He would respond only with that grin we all know so well,” Father Cook said in a message to St. Pius X parishioners on Saturday.
The two had become friends through attending diocesan events and during Father Cook’s previous Greensboro assignment. Before Monsignor Marcaccio’s cancer diagnosis, they had been planning to meet for dinner.
“I wish (those plans) had come to fruition,” he told St. Pius X parishioners. “And while it seems many plans were cut short by our dear Monsignor’s passing, we must trust this is all part of God's bigger plan for us.”
St. Pius X Parish includes 1,800 families and a school of more than 400 pre-K through eighth-grade students.
A native of High Point, Father Cook was baptized and received First Communion at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church before his family moved to Asheville, where he attended Asheville Catholic School. Bishop Michael Begley, the first Bishop of Charlotte, confirmed him at St. Eugene Church in Asheville.
He received a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in public affairs from Western Carolina University, and a law degree from the University of Dayton. He worked as a corporate attorney for 12 years before answering a call to the priesthood – a seed planted when he was an altar server at St. Eugene Parish in Asheville.
He attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia and the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.
As he prepares to take spiritual leadership of St. Pius X Parish, he offered words of comfort to his new parish family.
“God does not desert us. God continues to provide priests for His Church, and I'm honored to be asked to step into that role in the tradition of Monsignor Marcaccio,” he said. “Although we continue to mourn, we continue to look to the future with that foundation of hope that is found in our faith.”
— Annie Ferguson