History of Our Lady of Fatima Parish

PASSAIC  Father Thaddeus Lee had only a dozen Spanish-speaking Catholics attend the first Mass of the Our Lady of Fatima (OLF) community in Passaic, held in 1954 in a back room of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, also in the city. Despite the low numbers, the young Chinese priest, who had recently arrived in the United States, was not discouraged, because he knew it was the start of something special.

“After Father Lee visited people’s homes and invited them to the Mass, attendance increased Sunday by Sunday until the capacity of the room was not able to contain the number of people,” Salesian Sister Stella Ruiz, Father Lee’s assistant, told The Beacon for OLF’s silver jubilee in 1979. Father Lee, who spoke Spanish, moved the Masses to the basement of the church, the story said.

The roots of OLF started in the early 1950s, when the growing Puerto Rican community was looking for a meeting place. Father Lee arrived in the U.S. from Spain in De­cem­ber 1953. In 1949, the Commu­nists exiled Father Lee and many other Chinese priests, who went to Spain to learn the language and were assigned to Spanish missions.

Lacking a Spanish-speaking priest in the Diocese, Bishop James McNulty named Father Lee administrator for Spanish-speaking Catholics in the Passaic area in January 1954. Helping him was Capuchin Father Vitalis Sabatini and Salesian sisters, including Sister Stella, who continued visiting families and organized religious instruction. OLF was raised to mission status in 1957.

Father Lee bought a former Dutch Reformed church building on the corner of Exchange and Park Streets. After extensive work by the priest and a group of volunteers, the church was dedicated on Oct. 23, 1960. He then bought and converted nearby buildings for a convent for the sisters, a daycare center, and a religious education center. The sisters ran the daycare, activities with the young women of the parish, the choir, and summer camps for the children.

On June 27, 1972, Bishop Lawrence Casey raised the OLF mission to the status of a parish and appointed Father Lee as pastor. Seeing the need for a center for parish activities, the priest purchased a neglected building on Monroe Street and refurbished it with a team of volunteers. In January 1975, Bishop Casey blessed OLF’s new center in a celebration attended by more than 300 people.

In 1983, Bishop Frank J. Rodimer dedicated the Our Lady of Fatima Center, dedicated to evangelization and preaching the Good News of the Gospel. Throughout the years, The Beacon reported on OLF’s many traditions, such as an outdoor Hispanic Good Friday observance and First Friday services, and outreaches, including Father Dan’s Dinner Club soup kitchen, charismatic prayer groups, and a center that helped people in need with food, clothing, counseling, and cutting through “red tape” to get essential government services.

In 2005, OLF celebrated its 50th anniversary with a $335,000 renovation of the church. The restoration included the roof, walls, floors, steps, and hallways of the main entrance and the area surrounding the altar and installation of the church’s first central heating and air-conditioning systems.