1672 to 1789 During the 17th century, the British government divided present day New Jersey into separate provinces of
East Jersey and
West Jersey. East Jersey, which covered area belonging to the present Archdiocese of Newark, was hostile toward Catholics. The first priests to venture into East Jersey were Harvey and Gage, the chaplains of the Catholic governor of New York,
Thomas Dongan. Starting in 1672, the priests made a few trips to
Woodbridge and
Elizabethtown to the few Catholics there. Some of these early Catholics were French immigrants who were employed at salt works. However, in 1674, William Douglass was arrested in Elizabethtown and banished from East Jersey because he was a Catholic. In 1668, he had won a seat in the East Jersey provincial assembly, but was denied his seat due to his religion. The French envoy
François Barbé-Marbois, writing from Philadelphia in 1785, estimated the Catholic population in the new States of New York and New Jersey at approximately 1700, with over half of them living in New Jersey. Many French refugees from the
Haitian Revolution had settled in Elizabeth. Vianney, Tissorant, and Malou traveled to New Jersey from
St. Peter's Parish in New York City to provide ministry. The opening of mines, furnaces, glass works, and other industries attracted more Catholic immigrants to New Jersey. On April 8, 1808,
Pope Pius VII erected the
Diocese of Philadelphia and the
Diocese of New York, taking their territory from the Diocese of Baltimore. •
Sussex, Bergen,
Morris, Essex,
Somerset, Middlesex, and Monmouth counties in New Jersey became part of the Diocese of New York • The rest of New Jersey became part of the Diocese of Philadelphia. In Jersey City, Saint Peter's Church was dedicated in 1831. Saint Mary of the Assumption Church, the first parish in Elizabeth, was started in 1844. Our Lady of Grace Parish was started in Hoboken in 1851.
1853 to 1873 In 1853,
Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Newark, taking all of New Jersey from the Dioceses of New York and Philadelphia. The pope named
James Bayley as the first bishop of Newark. Having limited funds to operate the diocese, Bayley appealed to the
Society for the Propagation of the Faith in
Lyon, France for assistance in 1854. The Society gave him approximately 19,000 francs. He also received material assistance from the
Leopoldine Society in
Vienna. In 1855, Bayley estimated the number of Catholics in the diocese at 40,000, mainly Irish and German. The school moved in 1860 to South Orange, where it was incorporated in 1861 as
Seton Hall College. The college also had a seminary. In 1857, a group of Benedictine Sisters arrived from Pennsylvania to establish schools in the diocese. The next year, Bayley sent five women to train with the
Sisters of Charity. In 1872, Bayley became archbishop of Baltimore. At that time, Catholic boys sent by the courts to state institutions were unable to attend mass. Corrigan offered clergy to provide that service, but the State of New Jersey refused. In response, he established the Denville Catholic Protectory School in
Denville as an alternative to the state institutions. Catholic boys were taught skills and trades there. Corrigan also established a House of the Good Shepherd for Wayward Girls in 1875 in Newark. In 1880, a group of Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration arrived in Newark from France. Corrigan was named coadjutor archbishop for the Archdiocese of New York in 1880. That same year, the pope erected the
Diocese of Trenton, taking the southern portion of New Jersey from the Diocese of Newark. Shortly after his installation, Wigger remarked "In the
Church of God there is no distinction of
race,
color or
tongue." At the time of his consecration as a bishop, the diocese had 121 priests, 83 churches, 18,396 students enrolled in diocesan schools, and a Catholic population of 145,000. After surveying the church property in the diocese, Wigger negotiated a $2 million loan to cover the
mortgages on many churches. Wigger also came in conflict with German Catholics who were attracted to non-Catholic societies and religions. He also became involved in the controversy stirred by the German
Peter Cahensly over the alleged bias of Irish clergy in America against German Catholics. Wigger created German parishes, with their own schools for the preservation of German culture. Wigger held the fifth diocesan
synod in November 1886, which enacted strict regulations on Catholic
funerals and attendance at
parochial and public schools. In June 1899, Wigger laid the cornerstone for
Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Newark. During his tenure, the Catholic population of the diocese more than doubled, standing at over 683,000 by the time of his death. He increased the number of churches from 114 to 273, the number of priests from 265 to 712, and the number of Catholic school students from 35,330 to 82,462. O'Connor also established over 45 missions and chapels. He continued to oversee the construction of the
Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. St. Clare's Hospital opened in Denville in 1918. Today it is Saint Clare’s Denville Hospital. In 1926, fear of automobile crashes prompted O'Connor to prohibit diocesan priests from owning or driving motor vehicles, except in rural parishes. The following year, Walsh established the Newark Mount Carmel Guild to help those on
public assistance. In 1930, the guild set up a soup kitchen in the basement of
St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral. In 1930, Walsh acquired the "Tower Hill", the estate of Louis C. Gillespie, founder of L.C. Gillespie & Sons. He invited the
Religious Teachers Filippini to move to the diocese. The sisters relocated their motherhouse to
Morristown and named it Villa Walsh. They opened a girls school,
Villa Walsh Academy. In 1931, Walsh opened a new chancery building in Newark and in 1933 established Saint Gertrude Cemetery in
Colonia. Walsh raised $2 million in 25 days to build Immaculate Conception Seminary in 1936, and encouraged
Seton Hall Preparatory School and
Seton Hall College to seek state accreditation.
1937 to 1986 In December 1937, Pius XI took the following actions: • Erected the
Diocese of Paterson, taking
Morris, Sussex, and
Passaic Counties from the Diocese of Newark • Elevated the Diocese of Newark to the Archdiocese of Newark. The Dioceses of Camden, Paterson, and Trenton became
suffragan sees of the new archdiocese. • Named Walsh as the first archbishop of Newark. After Walsh died in 1952,
Pope Pius XII that same year named Bishop
Thomas Boland from the
Diocese of Paterson as the second archbishop of Newark. Boland founded
St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale,
Immaculate Heart Academy in Washington Township, and
Paramus Catholic High School in Paramus in the 1960s. In January 1969, a group of 20 priests of the archdiocese accused Boland of adopting a "white racist attitude" toward
African Americans". In response, Boland issued a seven-page report that outlined the programs the archdiocese had taken in regard to African-Americans. Boland retired in 1974. Bishop
Peter Gerety from the
Diocese of Portland was the third archbishop of Newark, appointed by Pope Paul VI in 1974. During his 12-year tenure in Newark, Gerety created the Office of Pastoral Renewal and began a ministry to divorced Catholics. The Office of Pastoral Renewal evolved into RENEW International, an organization based in
Plainfield that provides resources for small Christian communities in the United States, Canada and
Third World countries. Gerety established the Archbishop's Annual Appeal in 1975, and supported the
charismatic and
ecumenical movements. In November 1981, Pope
John Paul II erected the
Diocese of Metuchen, designating it as a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Newark.
1986 to 2016 Gerety retired in 1986. His replacement was Bishop
Theodore McCarrick from the Diocese of Metuchen, named to Newark by Pope John Paul II in 1986. During his tenure, McCarrick established the Office of Evangelization, ministries for Hispanics and victims of
HIV/AIDS, and a drug prevention program. He also ordained 200 priests for the archdiocese. McCarrick became known as an advocate for
social justice, once saying, "[T]he Church cannot be authentic unless it takes care of the poor, the newcomers, the needy." Later that year, Myers banned
eulogies at funeral masses in the archdiocese, saying that some eulogies were inappropriate and too long. After pushback from parishioners, he reversed himself. In 2004, Myers criticized a group of law students at Seton Hall University for honoring Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor, objecting because she allegedly favored
abortion rights for women. In September 2013,
Pope Francis named Bishop
Bernard Hebda as
coadjutor archbishop of the archdiocese to assist Myers. In February 2014,
The New York Times reported that Myers planned to retire to a 7,500-foot so-called "palace", expanded at his direction in
Pittstown. In June 2016, Francis named Hebda as the new archbishop of the
Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The pope did not replace Hebda with another coadjutor.
2016 to present When Myers retired in late 2016, Francis named Archbishop
Joseph W. Tobin from the
Archdiocese of Indianapolis to replace him. Tobin welcomed a "pilgrimage" of gay and
lesbian Catholics and their families to Sacred Heart Cathedral in 2017. In an interview before the mass, Tobin said, "The word I use is 'welcome'. These are people that have not felt welcome in other places. My prayer for them is that they do. Today in the Catholic Church, we read a passage that says you have to be able to give a reason for your hope. And I'm praying that this pilgrimage for them, and really for the whole Church, is a reason for hope." In September 2021, the archdiocese broke ground on a new St. Lucy's Homeless Housing and Support Services Site in
Jersey City. The project was designed to provide emergency and
transitional housing, along with supportive services, for
homeless individuals and families. As of 2023,
Joseph W. Tobin, by then a Cardinal, is the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark. Tobin officiated the final solemn mass for
Saint Andrews the Apostle Catholic Church in
Bayonne on September 22, 2024. Established in 1914 by Andrew M. Egan, its construction began in 1922; it was dedicated by Bishop O’Connor. It was a worship venue for the Blessed
Miriam Teresa Demjanovich. In 2016, when Saint Andrew and Saint Mary Parishes were merged, mass attendance had dropped by 35%.
Sexual abuse scandal In August 2016, Kevin Gugliotta was arrested for possession of
child pornography. Soon after his arrest, the archdiocese removed Gugliotta from public ministry. He pleaded guilty and in August 2017 was sentenced to an 11-year prison sentence. In February 2019, the archdiocese released a list of 63 clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors since 1940. Cardinal Tobin also acknowledged that the alleged acts of abuse committed by the clergy listed were reported to law enforcement agencies. By 2020, the names of 86 accused clergy who served in the archdiocese were made public. In December 2019, a new law went into effect in New Jersey that allowed some of McCarrick's alleged victims to file lawsuits against him and the archdiocese. As of December 2019, eight lawsuits had been filed against the archdiocese.
2020 lawsuits against archdiocese By February 2020, according to a New Jersey attorney, the five Catholic dioceses in the state had paid over $11 million to compensate 105 claims of sex abuse committed by clergy. Of these 105 claims, 98 were compensated through settlements.
America Magazine reported that the archdiocese and two other New Jersey dioceses had been making secret payments to victims of abuse by McCarrick since 2005. In July 2020,
Northjersey.com reported that nine new sex abuse lawsuits had been filed against the archdiocese. The new lawsuits contained allegations of abuse by four archdiocese priests and three members of religious orders. ==Ministries==