The parish of Kanankadu was entrusted to the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Francis De Sales in 1996in perpetuum. Kanankadu is a village panchayat in Villupuram district and ecclesiastically in Pondicherry – Cuddalore Archdiocese. Fr. Emmanuel took charge as the first parish priest. There are about 459 families in the entire village of which 215 are Catholics. These people are known to live in relative peace and harmony. In spite of their hard work, they are not economically and socially well off.However, there is a marked growth in this regard in recent times. Although agriculture is the main occupation for their livelihood, they are deprived of Sathanur dam water-resource and hence depend on the ground water for their cultivation.
The parish has 12 substations; they are Pudur, Ravathanallur, Pudupet, Puliyangkottai, Mookanur, Kaduvanur, Pakkam, Athiyur, Tholuvanthangal, Periyakolliyur, Pushpagiri and Ilayanarkuppam. Except in Pudur and Pushpagiri, the Catholic faith in all the other substations is very shallow and sometimes close to nil. It calls for a greater commitment and innovative methods of catechising the faithful in these places.
The parish has an aided primary school in the parish campus.The literacy rate of the inhabitants was very poor. Fr. F. Emmanuel took active initiatives to upgrade it to a middle school in 2000. He built a church in the substation called Mookanoor. In 2007-2008, Fr. M. Rajkumar organized a computer center, which later came to a standstill and the computers were given to the use of the school students. In 2010, a church was constructed in Ravathnallur, a substation in the time of Fr. A. Maria Selvan. A piece of land was bought here in 2011.
The recent years have witnessed commendable growth in literacy rate among the locals and the full credit goes to all MSFS priests who worked at Kanankadu with tireless efforts and commitment. Our fathers have done justice by training the faithful into practicing Catholics and we can see a good many number of children coming for all the church activities.
Parish Priests:
| Name | Year |
| Fr. F. Emmanuel | 1996 -2002 |
| Fr. A. Jayaseela Rajan | 2002 -2006 |
| Fr. G. Arockiasamy | 2006 -2007 |
| Fr. M. Rajkumar | 2007 -2008 |
| Fr. A. Maria Selvan | 2008 -2011 |
Assistant Parish Priests : Fr. A. Antony Christopher, Fr. S. Simon Raja