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    As for the spiritual life of the peninsular French, it left much to be desired. That is not to say they were wanting in faith or piety , on the contrary, but there was a lack of priests and churches. Without exception, the French population seems to have been Catholic. Yet there was no church at Cape St. George before 1921 (at any rate, the 1911 census does not mention one) and it was only in 1975 that Mainland began to receive a weekly visit to its recently constructed chapel, of an English priest from Lourdes.

    Strictly speaking, the religious history of the region only begins in 1850 when a Quebec priest, Fr. Alexis Bélanger (1808-1868), set foot at Sandy Point (on the 7th of September). His mission was one of extreme difficulty. His parish was vast, effectively covering the whole of the West Coast and, given the absence of roads, every journey was made on foot or by boat. Fr. Bélanger, who had already worked in the Magdalen Islands, had no language problems of course with the French and Acadians. In the Codroy Valley he even managed to bring in, once a year, a Gaelic-speaking priest who was able to minister more readily to the spiritual needs of the Scots.