In January of 2008 the Catholic Churches, Our Lady of Mercy in Granada, Nicaragua and Our Lady of Grace of Greensboro, NC became Sister Parishes.

Our Lady of Mercy is a 250 year old building located in the historical center of Granada, Nicaragua in Central America. It is a small parish with 2,000 members. Fr. Sergio Hernandez is the only priest. The church was originally a convent of mercy, that is why it is call Our Lady of Mercy. Look here for another picture of the church and some of its history. It was initiated in 1536. It became a parish after 1856. It is a historical and cultural monument in Nicaragua..

Fr. Sergio Hernandez has been the pastor of Our Lady Mercy since 2002 and has been working diligently to bring the parish back to life. He has focused on the youth, establishing the Corpus Christi Foundation. The mission of this foundation is to provide an alternative to help the poor children and high risk youth of the area.

Our Lady of Mercy and the Corpus Christi Foundation need our help to make scholarships available for high school graduates, providing evangelization and spiritual retreats, offering youth group and chorus, and promoting sports activities for these at-risk young people.

Long term projects include the reconstruction of two buildings for the youth, converting them to housing and providing a retreat center for evangelization of the public school children.

The Sister Parish Committee here at Our Lady of Grace has set up an "Adopt-a-Student" Program to help support the youth through the Corpus Christi Foundation. Adoption forms and envelopes for Our Sister Parish are located at each entrance of Our Lady of Grace. To ensure donations are placed in the proper account, please make donations to: OLG/OLM Sister Parish and place it in the purple envelopes located at each entrance of the church.

For more information, call the church office at Our Lady of Grace at (336) 274-6520 or contact Tim Mainhart (tcmainhart@gmail.com) or Lorena Mainhart (lmainhart@juno.com) at (336) 852-7247.