Three priests of the Archdiocese of Louisville are retiring this summer after decades of service to local parishes, presiding over an untold number of sacraments in those decades.
Father Terry L. Bradshaw, 70, retired on June 19 from the same parish where he was ordained 44 years ago — the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown, Ky.
Father Bradshaw, born in Texas and raised in Marion County, Ky., attended St. Augustine School in Lebanon, Marion County High School, Bellarmine University and St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore.
He was ordained on May 31, 1980. After his ordination, Father Bradshaw served as associate pastor of St. Martha Church and St. Joseph in Bardstown. He served as pastor of St. Bartholomew Church from 1987 to 1999. He served as associate pastor for a year and then as pastor of St. Athanasius Church from 1999 to 2010.
He served as pastor of St. Bernadette Church from 2010 to 2015, seeing the construction of the parish church in Norton Commons to completion in 2013. In 2015, he became pastor of St. Michael Church in Fairfield, Ky., (until 2017) and pastor of St. Joseph in Bardstown, until his retirement.
He was appointed to serve on the Priests’ Council of the archdiocese in 2017 and as a consultor on the council since 2018. He also served as a chaplain at Mercy and Presentation academies.
Father David W. Harris, 70, also retired on June 19, after taking an unusual path to the priesthood.
Father Harris, a native of Middlesboro, Ky., studied at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and served as a minister in the Baptist church before he converted to Catholicism. He also has a family with his wife, Pam. He was ordained under a special provision for former Protestant ministers.
He attended St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology and was ordained on Sept. 6, 2008.
After his ordination, Father Harris served as assistant to the pastor at St. Aloysius Church in Pewee Valley, Ky. In 2012, he was appointed administrator of the clustered parishes of Our Mother of Sorrows, St. Elizabeth of Hungary and St. Therese. Under his leadership, the three parishes formed the Pax Christi Collaborative.
In 2016, he became pastor of St. Albert the Great Church, where he served until his retirement.
Father Anthony Chinh Ngo, 65, will retire on Aug. 1 after serving as a priest for 30 years, the majority of those years at St. John Vianney Church in South Louisville.
He was ordained a priest of the Xaverian Missionary Fathers on May 17, 1994. He began serving in the Archdiocese of Louisville in 1997, when he became associate pastor of St. John Vianney and the former St. Jerome Church in Fairdale, Ky. The appointment was initially to be a temporary one, but in May of 2002, he was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Louisville, becoming a priest of the archdiocese. In those early years, he also served as chaplain for Holy Rosary Academy.
He was appointed pastor of St. John Vianney in June of 2005. At that time, more than half the parish members were Vietnamese, a reflection of its changing neighborhood in South Louisville. He led the parish in its shift that year from a typical area parish to one that reflects the Vietnamese culture and language in its Masses, ministries and other programs.
He continues to lead the parish community through Aug. 1, when he officially retires.
To send congratulations directly to the priests, their contact details can be found at www.archlou.org under the “About” menu.
