60 Years of Ministry to God’s People
(This is Our Story)

by Presy Lorenzo

It was 1963. Young families were moving into the Greenville area of Jersey City. They worshiped at St. Paul the Apostle Church across the boulevard and sent their children to St. Paul’s grammar school. Thomas Aloysius Boland, the then Archbishop of Newark, recognized the increasing pressures brought to bear on the Parish of Saint Paul the Apostle by the growing number of parishioners in the southwest section of Jersey City. With the large numbers of young families in the parish, the need for a school was inevitable. The archbishop instituted the Parish of Our Lady of Mercy to serve the spiritual and educational needs of the expanding population.

The archbishop appointed the then Fr. Edward F. Wojtycha as the founding pastor of Our Lady of Mercy on June 29, 1963. He blessed Fr. Wojtycha with a room in St. Paul the Apostle rectory, a store front on Kennedy Boulevard, sixteen lots (most of it under water), the architectural plans for a regional high school, and a shovel. With plans in hand, Fr. Wojtycha approached parishes and banks to borrow the funds needed to build the physical structure of our parish.

The first Sunday Mass was celebrated on July 7, 1963, in temporary quarters at Moose Hall on West Side Avenue and the Boulevard Skating Arena located on the border of Jersey City and Bayonne. Daily Mass was celebrated in the garage of the priests’ residence on Ferncliff Avenue. On Christmas Day, 1964, the first Mass was celebrated at the new parish center.

The archdiocesan plans for a regional high school became, instead, the blueprints for a parish school for which ground was broken on November 3, 1963. On September 9, 1964, Our Lady of Mercy school opened under the direction of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chestnut Hill, with 332 pupils in grades 1-3. In 1965, grades 4-6 were added and in 1966, grade 7 was added. The following year the full elementary program of eight grades became a reality. The new convent was dedicated by Archbishop Thomas A. Boland on October 8, 1966

The original plans for OLM incorporated a separate church building on Bartholdi Avenue, but the amortization and maintenance of the parish plant weighed heavily on our young parish. The decision was made to convert the gymnasium into a permanent place of worship. On September 24, 1974, the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, Archbishop Peter L. Gerety formally dedicated the new permanent church. After 25 years of constant use, the church was renovated in 1999-2000, and a new altar was dedicated on June 25, 2000, the feast of Corpus Christi.

The 1980s brought challenges to our young parish. Interest rates on certificates of deposit were as high as 18%. We were hard pressed to make just the interest payments on our mortgage. On February 12, 1988, our parish received a loan of $900,000 from the archdiocese to pay off our mortgage held by a consortium of banks. To repay the archdiocese, several properties along Bartholdi Avenue, including a basketball court, were sold to developers, and single-family homes were built across the convent. The priests’ residence on Danforth Avenue, across Greenville Memorial Home, was also sold. We begged for loan forgiveness from other parishes. We organized a capital campaign. In the frigid winter of our 25th year as a parish, we knocked on parishioners’ homes, asking for pledges so we could become debt free. The heart that is Our Lady of Mercy parish beat strongly and faithfully, and WE MADE IT! There was not a dry eye at Mass when we ceremoniously “burnt the mortgage.” We were finally debt free.

In the succeeding years, our school and our parish flourished. OLM School grew to become one of the largest elementary schools in the archdiocese. However, due to declining enrollment, along with a failing national economy, enrollment dropped from 552 students in the school year 1999-2000 to 165 students in 2012-2013. The archdiocese decided to close the school in June 2013 after 48 years of outstanding education.

Our School of Religion provided catechesis for young people who were not enrolled in a Catholic school. An enhanced Faith Formation program was instituted to nurture the spiritual formation of our children following our school closure.

Due to the untimely demise of Fr. James O’Brien in 1997, then incumbent pastor, Fr. Jack Cryan, was appointed Administrator of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish. We continued to build on a history of collaboration between our parishes. On March 8, 2005, Our Lady of Mercy was linked with Our Lady of Sorrows, and Father Jack became pastor of both faith communities.

Modern times brought new challenges. There was an economic and a demographic shift, and attendance at Mass and in our school slowly declined. When church and school finances entwined, the church subsidized the school budget shortfall. The effect was several years’ deferral of payments to the Chancery for parish assessments, pension plans, health benefits premiums, property insurance premiums, etc. We responded by restricting the rental income from our former school, now leased to Starting Points, towards liquidation of several years’ payments due to chancery. The pandemic forced a shut down, including physical distancing, masking and other required measures imposed by government health authorities. We responded by live streaming our ten o’clock Sunday Mass. We introduced online giving and utilized social media to reach our parishioners.

We thank God for the gift of Our Lady of Mercy parish. We are grateful to the men and women who built and kept our church vibrant through the years, so that those of us who came after them have a spiritual home where we can rest our weary souls. We thank our founding pastor, Msgr. Edward F. Wojtycha, and all the ordained men and religious women who served at our vineyard. We ask for the intercession of our patroness, Our Lady of Mercy, so that those who come after us will keep the flame of love burning brightly.

“ONE CHURCH, ONE LOVE”

In Pictures: OLM 60th Anniversary Gala (09/24/2023)
More photos from the earlier days of OLM