"It has recently become my grand privilege, by a decree of the most Reverend Bishop (Jules B. Jeanmard) to establish a parish dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. Temporarily we are saying Mass on Sundays at what used to be the Teenage Ranch House where St. Julien Street meets the Abbeville Highway." So wrote Father Michael J. Benedict, founding pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish. The letter continued on to outline tentative plans for building a school as the first parish facility.

On Easter Sunday, April 17, 1949, 700 Catholic families became new parishioners of the infant Fatima Parish. In the beginning, Fatima Church was not a church but a frame city barn. On October 17, 1951 Father Benedict was to say that "1950 will be known as the year of the great fire." This statement was made on the anniversary of the burning of the old barn. A happier fire was that of the "burning of the mortgage" on our present Church on October 1, 1978 nearly 30 years after Fatima Parish’s founding.

A generous donation from the J. F. Whittington family led to the groundbreaking of the first Fatima Parish building. In October 1949, Archbishop (later Cardinal) Amleto Giovanni Cicognani turned ground for the structure, a school building which would double as the Church.

Fatima School opened in 1950 with 123 children-attending Nursery – 4^th grades. Sr. Sacred Heart Ott, MHS and four sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament order staffed the school. One of the oldest organizations, the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, began under the direction of Mrs. Claude Gouaux.

It has been a tradition at Fatima Parish to involve the congregation in all areas of activities. In June 1952, the Court of Our Lady of the Rosary No. 1613 Catholic Daughters of the Americas was instituted. There were 100 charter members with Mrs. Anna Mae Blackham serving as the first regent. In May 1949, the Ladies Altar Society was founded by Mrs. L. B. Long.

Fatima Parish has been blessed with talented pastors: Fr. Michael J. Benedict (1949-60), Auxiliary Bishop Robert E. Tracy (1960-61), Msgr. Wayne Richard (1961-67), Msgr. Rudolph Arlanti (1967-75), Msgr. Alexander O. Sigur (1975-88), Fr. James Doiron (1988-89), Fr. Richard Greene (1989-98) and Msgr. Glenn Provost (1998 to 2007, and Rev. Fr. Michael J. Russo (2007 to Present)