During the 17th century, the British government divided present day New Jersey into separate provinces ofEast Jersey andWest 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 toWoodbridge andElizabethtown to the few Catholics there. Some of these early Catholics were French immigrants who were employed at salt works.[3]
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.[3] East Jersey in 1698 granted religious toleration to all Christian faiths except Catholicism. The British Government combined East Jersey and West Jersey in 1702 into theProvince of New Jersey.
During the 18th century, Robert Harding andFerdinand Farmer from Philadelphia traveled across the province of New Jersey, ministering to Catholics at Mount Hope, Macopin,Basking Ridge, Trenton andRingwood. The settlement of Macopin was founded by German Catholics sometime during this period.[4]
The French envoyFrançois 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 theHaitian Revolution had settled in Elizabeth. Vianney, Tissorant, and Malou traveled to New Jersey fromSt. 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.[4]
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.[4]
St. John's Parish, founded in 1826, was the first parish in Newark.[6] 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.[7]
In 1853,Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Newark, taking all of New Jersey from the Dioceses of New York and Philadelphia.[8] The pope named ReverendJames Bayley as the first bishop of Newark.[9]
Having limited funds to operate the diocese, Bayley appealed to theSociety for the Propagation of the Faith inLyon, France for assistance in 1854.[10] The Society gave him approximately 19,000 francs.[11] He also received material assistance from theLeopoldine Society inVienna. In 1855, Bayley estimated the number of Catholics in the diocese at 40,000, mainly Irish and German.[10][11]
In 1856, Bayley opened Chegary Academy inMadison.[12] The school moved in 1860 to South Orange, where it was incorporated in 1861 asSeton Hall College. The college also had a seminary.[13] 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.
To replace Bayley, ReverendMichael Corrigan of Newark became the second bishop of Newark, appointed by Pius IX in 1873.[14] At that time, Catholic boys sent 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 Catholic Protectory inDenville as an alternative to the state institutions, where Catholic boys were taught skills and trades. Corrigan also established a House of the Good Shepherd for girls in 1875 in Newark. In 1880, a group of Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration arrived in Newark from France.[15] Corrigan became coadjutor archbishop for New York in 1880.
The next bishop of Newark was ReverendWinand Wigger of Newark, named byPope Leo XIII in 1881.[16] That same year, the pope erected theDiocese of Trenton, taking the southern portion of New Jersey from the Diocese of Newark.[17] Shortly after his installation, Wigger remarked "In theChurch of God there is no distinction ofrace,color ortongue."[18] 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.[19]
After surveying the church property in the diocese, Wigger negotiated a $2 million loan to cover themortgages on many churches.[19] In 1883, he moved the Catholic Protectory from Danville toMount Arlington and established the Sacred Heart Union to aid in its maintenance.[4] Wigger was fiercely hostile to the sale of alcohol; in 1884, he ordered his priests to deny thelast rites of the Church to anyone who sold alcohol to minors or those withalcohol abuse problems. The brewers in the diocese were generally German and the saloon keepers predominantly Irish, but some viewed Wigger's hostility to alcoholic beverages as having ananti-Irish bias.[20]
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 GermanPeter 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 diocesansynod in November 1886, which enacted strict regulations on Catholicfunerals and attendance atparochial and public schools.[4] He even threatened toexcommunicate Catholic parents who sent their children to public schools. Wigger unsuccessfully attempted to introducestate legislation to secure financial aid from the state forCatholic schools.[21][18] In June 1899, Wigger laid the cornerstone forCathedral of the Sacred Heart in Newark.[4][18] Wigger died in 1901. By the time of his death, the diocese had 256 priests, 153 churches, 34,817 students, and 300,000 Catholics[19]
In 1901, MonsignorJohn J. O'Connor of Newark was appointed the fourth bishop of Newark byPope Leo XIII.[22] During his tenure, the Catholic population of the diocese more than doubled, standing at over 683,000 by the time of his death.[23] 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.[24] O'Connor also established over 45 missions and chapels. He continued to oversee the construction of theCathedral of the Sacred Heart.[23] In 1903, O'Connor condemned the oath of theInternational Typographical Union and forbade Catholics from taking it, saying, "A man owes his allegiance first to God.[25] In 1926, fear of automobile crashes prompted O'Connor to prohibit diocesan priests from owning or driving motor vehicles, except in rural parishes.[23] O'Connor died in 1927.
The next bishop of Newark was BishopThomas Walsh from theDiocese of Trenton, appointed byPope Pius XI in 1928.[26] The following year, Walsh established the Newark Mount Carmel Guild to help those onpublic assistance. In 1930, the guild set up a soup kitchen in the basement ofSt. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral.[27] In 1930, Walsh acquired the "Tower Hill", the estate of Louis C. Gillespie, founder of L.C. Gillespie & Sons. He invited theReligious Teachers Filippini to move to the diocese. The sisters relocated their motherhouse toMorristown and named it Villa Walsh. They opened a girls school,Villa Walsh Academy.[28] In 1931, Walsh opened a new chancery building in Newark and in 1933 established Saint Gertrude Cemetery inColonia.[29] Walsh raised $2 million in 25 days to build Immaculate Conception Seminary in 1936, and encouragedSeton Hall Preparatory School andSeton Hall College to seek state accreditation.[30]
Elevated the Diocese of Newark to the Archdiocese of Newark.[31] The Dioceses of Camden, Paterson, and Trenton becamesuffragan sees of the new archdiocese.
BishopPeter Gerety from theDiocese of Portland was the third archbishop of Newark, appointed by Pope Paul VI in 1974.[36] During his 12-year tenure in Newark, Gerety created the Office of Pastoral Renewal and began a ministry to divorced Catholics.[37] The Office of Pastoral Renewal evolved into RENEW International, an organization based inPlainfield that provides resources for small Christian communities in the United States, Canada andThird World countries. Gerety established the Archbishop's Annual Appeal in 1975, and supported thecharismatic andecumenical movements.[37] He also established the Archbishop Gerety Fund for Ecclesiastical History to advance studies in ecclesiastical history, especially thehistory of Catholicism in the United States.[38]
In November 1981, PopeJohn Paul II erected theDiocese of Metuchen, designating it as a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Newark.[39] In 1984, Gerety ordered People of Hope, a charismatic Catholic community in the archdiocese, to sever its relationship withSword of the Spirit, a nationwide conference of charismatic groups, citing its authoritarian practices. People of Hope said that they were not subject to Gerety's authority.[40]
Gerety retired in 1986. His replacement was BishopTheodore 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 ofHIV/AIDS, and a drug prevention program.[41] He also promotedvocations, and ordained 200 priests for the archdiocese.[42] McCarrick became known as an advocate forsocial justice, once saying, "[T]he Church cannot be authentic unless it takes care of the poor, the newcomers, the needy."[42] He became archbishop of theArchdiocese of Washington in 2000.
Archbishop McCarrick in June 2006
To replace McCarrick, John Paul II selected BishopJohn J. Myers of theDiocese of Peoria in 2001.[43] Later that year, Myers bannedeulogies at funeral masses in the archdiocese, saying that some eulogies were inappropriate and too long. After pushback from parishioners, he reversed himself.[44] In 2004, Myers criticized a group of law students at Seton Hall University for honoring Supreme Court JusticeSandra Day O'Connor, objecting because she allegedly favoredabortion rights for women.[45]
When Myers retired in late 2016, Francis named ArchbishopJoseph W. Tobin from theArchdiocese of Indianapolis to replace him.[48][49][50][51] Tobin welcomed a "pilgrimage" of gay andlesbian 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."[52]
In September 2021, the archdiocese broke ground on a new St. Lucy's Homeless Housing and Support Services Site inJersey City. The project was designed to provide emergency andtransitional housing, along with supportive services, forhomeless individuals and families.[53]
As of 2023,Joseph W. Tobin, by then a Cardinal, is the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark.
Tobin officiated the final solemn mass forSaint Andrews the Apostle Catholic Church inBayonne on September 22, 2024.[54] Established in 1914 by Reverend Andrew M. Egan, its construction began in 1922; it was dedicated by Bishop O’Connor. It was a worship venue for the BlessedMiriam Teresa Demjanovich. In 2016, when Saint Andrew and Saint Mary Parishes were merged, mass attendance had dropped by 35%.[55]
In 2001, Reverend Michael Fugee, a pastor at St. Elizabeth's Parish inWyckoff, was accused of molesting a 14-year-old boy on multiple occasions in the 1990s. Fugee confessed to police in 2001 to fondling a teenage boy. However, he later recanted his confession, saying he had been pressured by investigators.[56] Fugee was tried and convicted in 2003 of criminal sexual contact, but his conviction was overturned in 2006 by anappellate court.[57] To avoid a retrial, Fugee signed an agreement with theBergen County Prosecutor's Office in 2007. He agreed to a lifetime ban working in contact with children. The archdiocese co-signed the agreement, promising it would supervise Fugee.[58]
In September 2009, the archdiocese assigned Fugee as chaplain atSaint Michael's Medical Center in Newark. However, after learning about Fugee's record, Saint Michael's demanded that the archdiocese remove him. The archdiocese later admitted that they never informed the hospital about Fugee's past, only the head of the archdiocese chaplain's office.[57] In 2013, Fugee was discovered working in youth ministry at St. Mary's Parish inColts Neck, a parish in theDiocese of Trenton. Myers said he was unaware of Fugee's youth work and immediately suspended him.[59][60] There were calls for Myers to resign, including from members of theNew Jersey State Legislature, because of his handling of the Fugee case.[61] In early 2014, the Bergen County prosecutors agreed to not press new charges against Fugee if the Vaticanlaicized him, which happened in May 2014.[58]
In August 2016, Reverend Kevin Gugliotta was arrested for possession ofchild pornography after detectives traced an upload he made of these materials to achat room. 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. Gugliotta later told probation officers that he uploaded the pornography because he was angry with God for causing him to lose atpoker tournaments.[62]
In 2018, Reverend Desmond Rossi, a priest with theDiocese of Albany, revealed that he had been sexually assaulted when he was a seminarian. Rossi said he attacked by two other seminarians in a Newark church in 1988. He filed a complaint with the Archdiocese of Newark in 2003. After an investigation, the archdiocese said that Rossi's complaint was credible, but could not be proven; they took no further action.[63]
In March 2019, a New Jersey man sued the archdiocese, claiming that he had been sexually abused by Gugliotta at St. Bartholomew the Apostle Parish inScotch Plains. The plaintiff noted that a man complained to the archdiocese about Gugliotta in 2003, saying that he had sexually abused him as a boy when Gugliotta was aBoy Scout leader in the 1980s. However, since the alleged crime happened before Gugliotta entered the priesthood, the archdiocese allowed him to stay in ministry.[64][65]
In an August 2018 article, theCatholic News Agency said that six anonymous priests made the following claims during an interview about now former CardinalTheodore McCarrick and several priests in the archdiocese;
That the archdiocese in 2014 removed Mark O'Malley as rector of St. Andrew's Hall Seminary after he secretly hid a camera in a priest's bedroom[66]
That McCarrick would invite young men to stay at his house inSea Girt on theJersey Shore, or to spend the night in the cathedral rectory inNewark
That some priests in the archdiocese were involved in gay relationships with each other
In response to the 2018Catholic News Agency article, the archdiocese stated that neither the six priests nor anyone else "has ever spoken to Cardinal Tobin about a 'gay sub-culture' in the Archdiocese of Newark."[66] Regarding O'Malley, the archdiocese stated that he had been "going through a personal crisis and received therapy after the incident at the seminary. Although he is not serving as a pastor, he has been deemed fit for priestly ministry and hopes to serve as a hospital chaplain."[66][67]
In July 2018,The New York Times reported that Robert Ciolek, a former priest, had received an $80,000 settlement in 2004 from the archdiocese and two other New Jersey dioceses. Ciolek had accused McCarrick of sexually abusing him at the Sea Girt house. In 2007, a second victim of sexual abuse at Sea Girt, a priest, had received a $100,000 settlement from the archdiocese.[68] In September 2018, theUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishops announced that its investigation of McCarrick would include his tenure as archbishop of Newark.[69]
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.[70] By 2020, the names of 86 accused clergy who served in the archdiocese were made public.[71]
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.[72] As of December 2019, eight lawsuits had been filed against the archdiocese.[73][74]
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.[75]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.[76] 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.[77]
In July 2020, a New Jersey man sued the diocese, stating that he had been sexually abused by McCarrick and three priests at the Sea Girt house in 1982 when he was 14. At that time, McCarrick was bishop of Metuchen. The plaintiff said that the beach house was a common place for McCarrick and others to engage in "open and obvious criminal sexual conduct". The lawsuit stated that boys staying at the house were paired with adult clergymen in the same bedrooms. The Diocese of Metuchen bought the house in 1985, then sold it to the archdiocese in 1988.[78][79]
In August 2020, two men sued the archdiocese andParamus Catholic High School in Paramus. The men alleged that they had been sexually molested by hockey coach Bernard Garris at the school and during athletic trips between 1986 and 1988. The lawsuit alleged that the archdiocese, the school and McCarrick covered up the abuse after the plaintiffs reported it.[80] In October 2020, eight more former Paramus students filed similar lawsuits.[80]
In December, 2020, it was revealed that the Archdiocese of Newark was among more than 230 sex abuse lawsuits filed within a period of one year against New Jersey Catholic dioceses.[81]
Also in December 2020, three Michigan men sued the archdiocese, accusing Miroslaw Krol of sexually abusing them. Although a priest with the Archdiocese of Newark, Krol had been serving as chancellor of the Catholic Orchard Lake Schools in theArchdiocese of Detroit. The men, all school employees, said that Krol would sexually assault and constantly proposition them. When the men reported their allegations to the Orchard Lake board of trustees, they were fired.[82]
In May 2021, a woman filed a $50 million lawsuit, claiming that Archbishop Gerety sexually abused her in a church rectory in 1976 when she was five years old.[83]
In September 2021, four former Archdiocese of Newark priests were named in new sex abuse lawsuits.[84]
In November 2021, Michael Reading, a former archdiocesan priest, accused McCarrick of sexually abusing him in 1986 during a stay at McCarrick's beach house. Reading also claimed that as a boy, he was sexually abused in 1978 by Edward Eilert, an archdiocesan priest.[85]
In May 2020, the Archdiocese of Newark announced that it would close nine elementary schools andCristo Rey Newark High School in Newark due to financial problems.[89][90][91] The archdiocese also noted that the it would have to pay approximately $80 million to keep all of its remaining elementary schools open for only five more years.[92]
^abYeager, M. Hildegarde (1947).The Life of James Roosevelt Bayley, First Bishop of Newark and Eighth Archbishop of Baltimore, 1814–1877. Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press. pp. 115–116.
^abYeager, M. Hildegarde (1947).The Life of James Roosevelt Bayley, First Bishop of Newark and Eighth Archbishop of Baltimore, 1814–1877. Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press. p. 121.
^Kupke, Raymond. "James Roosevelt Bayley",The Encyclopedia of American Catholic History
^abcHerbermann, Charles George. "Rt. Rev. Winand Michael Wigger, D.D., Third Bishop of Newark".Historical Records and Studies of the United States Catholic Historical Society.
United States
