This parish was one of the sites proposed by Bishop Jules B. Jeanmard of the Diocese of Lafayette to provide work for African-American priests ordained in the United States in 1934. Rev. Maurice Rousseve, SVD, and his successor, Rev. Anthony C. Bourges, SVD, of the Society of the Divine Word, both members of that historic class, became the first and second African-American pastors of Notre Dame Parish. Their leadership and that of their successors produced a thriving center of Catholicity, rich in faith, culture, and tradition.