1700 to 1800 Although the British
Provinces of East Jersey and
West Jersey were not officially welcoming to Catholics, they tended to ignore their presence. During the mid 1700s, priests would periodically visit German Catholic workers at the iron mills in
Passaic County. The first parish in New Jersey, Saint Joseph’s, was established in
West Milford in 1765.
1800 to 1900 As the population of the United States grew, the Vatican in 1808 established the
Dioceses of Philadelphia and
New York. In 1820, Bishop
John Connolly of New York sent Richard Bulger to Paterson to serve as first resident priest in New Jersey. Waves of Irish and German Catholic immigrants flooded into the area during the mid-1800s. In 1853, the Vatican erected the
Diocese of Newark from the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Philadelphia. The Paterson area would remain part of the Diocese of Newark for the next 84 years. In 1867, the
Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth founded St. Joseph's Hospital in Paterson.It is today St. Joseph's University Medical Center. Sacred Heart Church, the first Catholic church in Clifton, was dedicated in 1897. That same year, St. Mary's Hospital opened in
Passaic.It is today St. Mary's General Hospital. The
College of Saint Elizabeth in Morris Township was founded in 1899 by the
Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth. It was one of the first Catholic colleges in the United States to award degrees to women. It is today Saint Elizabeth University. St. John the Baptist Church in Paterson was designated as the diocesan cathedral. In 1938, McLaughlin established Associated Catholic Charities in the diocese. Following the death of McLaughlin in 1947,
Pope Pius XII that same year appointed Auxiliary Bishop
Thomas Boland of Newark as the second bishop of Paterson. Boland served in Paterson for five years before being appointed archbishop of Newark in 1952. Boland was succeeded by Auxiliary Bishop
James A. McNulty of Newark, named by Pius XII in 1953. During his tenure, he established thirteen new parishes. In 1963, McNulty became bishop of the
Diocese of Buffalo. He died suddenly in 1965.
Pope Paul VI in 1966 appointed Auxiliary Bishop
Lawrence B. Casey from the
Diocese of Rochester as Navagh's replacement in Paterson. Casey died in 1977.
Frank Rodimer of Paterson was named by Paul VI as the next bishop of Paterson, the first native of the diocese to serve that role. As bishop, Rodimer wrote a weekly column for the diocesan newspaper,
The Beacon. He also established a $7 million diocesan endowment to support Catholic schools, parishes and other diocesan ministries through fundraising. With corporate leaders, Rodimer established the Tri-County Scholarship fund to provide scholarships to needy students attending Catholic schools. During his tenure, Rodimer expressed his opposition to
capital punishment and to permanent replacements for
striking workers.
2000 to present After Rodimer retired in 2004, Auxiliary Bishop
Arthur J. Serratelli of Newark succeeded him. After Serratelli retired in 2020, Kevin J. Sweeney of the
Diocese of Brooklyn succeeded him. In August 2024, the diocese, along with its Colombian and Filipino priests, filed an immigration case against the
US Department of State, the US Department of Homeland Security, and the
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The action stemmed from policy changes in EB-4 worker visa procedures for foreign-born clergy. The diocese dropped the lawsuit in November 2025 after reaching an agreement with the
Trump Administration.
Sexual abuse In 1985, Mark Serrano reported to the Diocese of Paterson that he was sexually abused as a child by James Hanley, a pastor of St. Joseph's Parish. The abuse started when Serrano was age nine in 1974 and continued until he was age 16. It included
sodomy, oral sex and forced masturbation. The diocese removed Hanley from ministry in 1986 and paid a $241,000 financial settlement to Serrano and his family. Hanley was
laicized by the Vatican at his own request in 2003. Timothy J. Brennan, a religious order priest, pleaded guilty in 1987 to aggravated sexual contact in 1984 with a 15-year-old student while teaching at Delbarton High School in Morris County. Receiving a one-year suspended sentence, his religious order, St. Mary’s Abbey, sent him to treatment. Brennan then went to work in the
Diocese of Rochester, which was not alerted to the priest's previous conviction. In 2002, St. Mary’s Abbey permanently removed Brennan from ministry. The Diocese of Paterson in May 1987 received allegations of
sexual abuse against Jose Alonso, rector of St. Joseph Cathedral. He was accused of abusing two teenage brothers. The diocese sent Alonso to the
Servants of the Paraclete facility in
New Mexico for treatment and immediately notified local authorities. Earlier in the 1980s, the diocese had received complaints about Alonso. Later in 1987, Alonso was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. In 2004, the diocese settled lawsuits from 27 victims of sexual abuse by Hanley, Alonso and several other clerics. In February 2019, the diocese released the names of 28 clergy with credible accusations of sexually abusing children since 1940. In December 2019, more accusers of Hanley filed new lawsuits against the diocese. By 2020, the names of 40 accused clergy listed were made public. A jury in October 2025 awarded a $5 million judgement to a man who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Richard Lott, a religious order priest, during the 1970s. The judgement was shared by the diocese and the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey. The Benedictines operated the
Delbarton School, the site of the alleged crime. ==Bishops==