Divine Mercy Catholic Church, an inviting and diverse community of faith, glorifies God through Liturgy, and in our words, actions and lives with the Eucharist as our center.
Divine Mercy Catholic Church was formed in June 2002 following a request from the leadership of the Faribault Catholic Community to Archbishop Harry Flynn that the parishes in Faribault be combined to one parish. After a parish discernment process, the parish leadership offered suggested names for the new parish. In August 2002, Archbishop Flynn announced the new parish of Divine Mercy Catholic Church.
Divine Mercy Catholic Church has a deep and strong tradition of the Catholic faith in Faribault. The Catholic faith in our commuity dates back to 1847 when the first Mass was held at the home of Alexander Faribault. In the years that followed, the parishes of St. Lawrence Catholic Church (the German parish), Sacred Heart Catholic Church (the French parish), and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church (the Irish parish) were created and grew and evolved with the changing of time.
In 1996, the parishes of St. Lawrence and Sacred Heart merged into one parish. The new parish was named Sacred Heart – St. Lawrence. In 2001, the Faribault Catholic Community (“FCC”) was created. This included the merging of the parish staff, ministries, offices and committees. The FCC leadership began discerning the future of the parishes. In 2002, following a discernment process, the leadership requested that the parishes in Faribault be combined into one parish: Divine Mercy Catholic Church.
In the years that followed, parish leadership began to discern the questions relative to facilities for the combined parish. This included parish discernment meetings, town hall meetings and the establishment of planning committees. Hal Johnson and Associates was hired as a communications and resource development firm and MCL Architects was hired to do programming and space planning. In early 2005, a series of presentation meetings were held to share a detailed assessment of our current facilities (for worship and education) and several conceptual options of how our current and future ministries could be accomodated within renovated or new facilities were presented.
Based on the feedback received through this process, Divine Mercy Catholic Church and School leadership voted on the recommendation to build a new church and education center on a new (to be determined) site. This decision was announced to our parish community in December 2005. In 2006, planning committees began the process of evaluating potential sites, building design, communications, and fundraising. Our New Beginnings capital campaign was launched in the spring of 2006 to raise monies for our new facilities. A 40 acre site was donated to our parish just south of town for the new facilities. Following the results of our capital campaign, the decision was made to began with the church and gathering space as the first phase of our master plan.
The Land Blessing Mass and Groundbreaking was held at the new site on Setpember 22, 2007 with Archbishop John Nienstedt. Preliminary site work began in the fall of 2007 and the building construction began in the spring of 2008. The dedication of the new church was held August 2, 2009 with Archbishop John Nienstedt.
“I pray that this church will always be a place where the message of God’s merciful love is proclaimed: a place of conversion and repentance; a place for the celebration of the Eucharist; a fountain of mercy; a place of prayer and of constant appeals for mercy for ourselves and for the whole world.”- John Paul II – August 17, 2002 homily at the dedication of the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Lagiewnike, Poland