Published October 14, 2026 at 1:47 PM EDT

Baltimore County is planning to spend $6 million to buy the shuttered St. Pius X Catholic Church.

As part of the deal, the county is promising that it will never allow the property to be used for activities involving abortion or birth control, or for adult entertainment.

Saint Pius was closed as part of the Catholic Church’s consolidation and the closing of parishes in 2024.

The county says it wants to transform St. Pius into a park. The 10 acre property on York Road near the city-county line adjoins Forge Park. Assistant County Attorney Jon Herbst said acquiring St. Pius will allow that small park to be expanded.

“All of us believe this is a tremendous opportunity for the county to obtain more field space, parking,” Herbst told the county council Tuesday night.

He said the plan is for the old elementary school on the property to be demolished. However as of now the St. Pius church building will remain. What it will be used for is to be determined.

Saint Pius is in Councilman Mike Ertel’s district. He said he’s excited about the purchase.

Ertel said, “We have a real lack of athletic fields and green space and property doesn’t come up often on the York Road corridor.”

County officials expect new ball fields at St. Pius will have a ripple effect, freeing up other fields in other parts of the county.

“There is never enough rec space,” said Councilman Izzy Patoka.

According to the contract that is being hammered out with the owner of the property, St. Pius X Roman Congregation, Inc., the proposed deed will restrict how the county can use the property.

Those restrictions include “specified abortion-related medical, counseling, advocacy, and other activities; the sale or promotion of certain birth-control products; adult entertainment and pornography; certain alcohol-related uses and sales; gas station use; massage parlor or prostitution-related uses; and marijuana-or cannabis-related activities.”

Before the county takes over the property, the church will take away all that is sacred, like baptismal fonts, stained glass windows and stations of the cross.

The state will cover more than half of the cost of buying St. Pius, $3.5 million.

The county hopes to close the deal by January.

Parishioners had appealed to the Vatican to reopen St. Pius. Margie Brassil, who was a member of St. Pius for more than two decades, said they were informed this past Spring that the appeal had been denied.

With that being the case, she said she is happy that St. Pius will now be a park. She said the parish has always been community-oriented.

“This area has nothing,” Brassil said. “The grounds are beautiful so there is a lot that could really be done with it.”

She added that perhaps the church building “could become a community hall, a community space where there could be various activities and gatherings.”