Our current church edifice is the former St. Mary's Church. St. Mary's Church in Rahway, NJ was founded in 1854 (as listed in the Archdiocese of Newark archives) but the red Gothic architecture edifice was not completed until 1888. It was designed by Jeremiah O' Rourke who is responsible for a couple of other church architectures within the state. It features a long nave lined with clerestory stained-glass windows on each side depicting significant events from the bible. The round entrance opening as well as the round windows are reminiscent of Romanesque influence on an otherwise Gothic structure. Prior to the current church being built, the parish has already been established by the diocese with Fr. Howell as it's first pastor from 1846 to 1849. He was followed by Fr. McCarthy and then Fr Thomas Quinn who was installed in 1853 as a pastor. He stayed as it's pastor for 20 years until Fr. Sebastian Smith took over in 1873 and was its pastor for eight years. . He was followed by Fr. McKosker in 1881 and Fr. Bernard Bogan in 1893. A parochial school was built next to the parish in 1890 which was ran by the Dominican sisters. In 1954, the interior artwork of the church was commissioned to famous Italian painter Ilario Panzironi who was already in his 90's. New pews and the original Peragallo organ was installed 1982.
Adjacent to the current church is the Jack and Margaret Myers Senior Residence which used to be the former St. Mary's Convent. The former convent was demolished in April 2010. Around this time, the Archdiocese of Newark also merged the parishes of St. Mary's and nearby St. Mark's to form the Divine Mercy Parish under Fr. Dennis Kaelin as pastor and Fr. Robert Lamirez and Fr. Peter Vo as resident priests. The demolition of the former St. Marks church started earlier halfway through 2018. A new administrator Fr. Alexander Cruz was installed in the beginning of 2018 and became it's new pastor on March 23, 2019. He was previously assisted by our former resident priest Fr. Robert Lamirez who had been with the church for almost ten years. On July 1, 2019, Fr. Jozef Krajnak was assigned to our parish as our new resident priest to assist Fr. Alex Cruz with hospital chaplaincy duties and to serve the needs of our Hispanic speaking community. Divine Mercy Parish continues to thrive in its diversity and grow in faith as it reaches out to the Catholic population of Rahway, NJ and its surrounding communities as well as those seeking for a place to learn more about our Catholic faith.