History

The Diocese of Paterson comprises New Jersey’s three northwest counties of Morris, Passaic, and Sussex, with an area of 1,214 square miles and a population of 1,134,000. It is largely situated in the New Jersey Highlands. Ten of the fifteen largest lakes in the state are located in the diocese. The see city, Paterson, located on the eastern edge of the diocese, is New Jersey’s third largest city. Although relatively small in area, the diocese has an interesting mix of urban, suburban and rural communities.

The first stirring of the Catholic faith in the area in the mid-eighteenth century was fostered by itinerant Jesuit priests from Philadelphia visiting German iron-workers in northern Passaic County. The first Mass in the diocese was at Ringwood in April 1765. Saint Joseph’s Parish, West Milford, the oldest in the state, dates itself from these early evangelism efforts.

The nineteenth century saw the Catholic population swelled by immigration, first from Ireland and Germany before the Civil War, and then from eastern and southern Europe in the later decades of the century. Father Richard Bulger, sent to Paterson in 1820 by Bishop John Connolly, O.P. of New York, was the first priest to be assigned to the state. When New Jersey became a separate diocese in 1853, there were six churches in the three northwest counties. The early twentieth century saw the Catholic tapestry of the area enriched by a large number of religious orders which founded monasteries, convents, schools and other institutions in the area. This growth was recognized by Pope Pius XI in December 1937, when he elevated the Newark Diocese to a metropolitan see, and created two new dioceses in the state at Camden and Paterson. The Auxiliary Bishop of Newark, Thomas H. McLaughlin, was named first Bishop of Paterson (1937-1947) and installed in the newly-designated Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist on April 28, 1938. On arrival in Paterson Bishop McLaughlin found 51 parishes, 22 missions, 91 diocesan priests, 78 religious priests and 916 religious women serving 125,000 Catholics in the new diocese.

The decades of the 1950s and 1960s were a time of tremendous growth for the diocese as part of the post-war suburban expansion. Thirty new parishes were established in twenty years during the administrations of Bishops Thomas A. Boland (1947-1952), James A. McNulty (1953-1963) and James J. Navagh (1963-1965). Arriving in Paterson just after the close of the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Lawrence B. Casey (1966-1977) spent much of his time implementing the conciliar decrees and expanding diocesan services. He was succeeded by the only native son to be named bishop, Frank J. Rodimer (1977-2004) of Rockaway. Rodimer began his tenure by studying Spanish to better equip himself to deal with a growing Latino presence which had begun as early as the 1920s and boomed in the decades after World War II. By the end of his episcopate, one quarter of all the parishes in the diocese had at least one Sunday Mass in Spanish. Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli’s (2004-2220) concerns included augmenting the number of diocesan priests and establishing Saint Paul inside the Walls, a diocesan evangelization center in the former Bayley-Ellard High School. On April 15, 2020, Pope Francis named Father Kevin J. Sweeney, a Brooklyn diocesan priest, as eighth Bishop of Paterson. Today the Paterson Diocese counts some 430,000 Catholics in a rich tapestry of 108 parishes where Mass is offered every Sunday in fourteen different languages and five of the Church’s Eastern Rites. The diocese counts some 280 diocesan priests, 95 religious priests, and 581 religious women.