History of Our Parish

In 1925, the same year that Therese of Lisieux was canonized as a saint, Bishop Lillis assigned Father Maurice Coates to a parish named after her in the southern part of Kansas City.  Initially, Mass was offered for the seventy families of the parish in the home of Frank Wheeler near Euclid Ave and 48th Terrace. For most of 1926, the parish used the Little Sisters of the Poor chapel at 53rd and Highland.  At Thanksgiving of that year, the basement of the new school was opened for Mass.  (Taken from Historical Geography of the Catholic Church in Kansas City, Missouri 1882-1930 by Thomas Hornbeck)

We celebrated our 75th anniversary in 2000 and have been in our current church building since 1948.  We are a community of well over 200 families and looked upon as a pillar in the neighborhood, admired and highly regarded for our dedication to community outreach.

St Therese was recognized as one of the best parishes in the United States in a book published in 2001 entitled Excellent Catholic Parishes - The Guide to Best Places and Practices authored by Paul Wilkes.  He wrote about St Therese: "Church community organization works to make church neighborhood safer; emergency assistance program; prayerful and welcoming Sunday liturgies; gospel choir."  Also, the 2002 issue of the Pitch newspaper's Best of Kansas City issue recognized St Therese as Kansas City's Best Church.