St. Theresa Church

Southville

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Our History

The 1930s continued to be a busy time for the Catholic Church of the area with construction, beginning in 1935, of another mission church – St. Theresa Church in Southville. The first Mass was offered in 1938, which included the Baptism of seven babies.

Southville had a strong distinguishing feature – most of its congregation had African ancestry – drawn to the area to work in the mills … and they were Protestant. Mingling with the Acadian Catholics, experiencing their warm hospitality and being invited to sit with them further up in their churches (not relegated to the back pews), many families embraced the Catholic faith.

Southville, throughout the years, became known for its many talented musicians and for its annual turkey supper in the church hall.

The 1940s through the 1950s was a particularly busy time for St. Joseph’s and its missions, especially under the leadership of Fr. Charles Frecker. Also during this time the Sisters of Charity (of Halifax) taught catechism each Summer, that is, until the arrival in 1951, of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (of Moncton) who set up a convent in the area.

Another feature of this bustling time, was the presence of a “parish bus”. It brought youth from the surrounding area into Weymouth for catechism and also transported youth for swimming at the Cornwallis military base, as well as skating, hockey, broomball and bowling in Digby.

FYI – the digital bell system now in place at St. Joseph’s was a gift of the estate of Lawrence Comeau, a native of Weymouth. Lawrence was a long-time resident of California and the right-hand man to billionaire Howard Hughes.

Subsequent decades would see more changes taking place especially in the local economy. The beloved Sisters from Moncton would close their convent in the 1980s and a closer alliance in parish restructuring would eventually take place with Digby and Plympton.

St. Theresa … pray for us!

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