NEWARK, ARCIDIOCESI DI. — City and archdiocese of the United States of America, erected as a diocese by Pius IX in 1853 for the State of New Jersey.
Today it has a population of 2,570,892 inhabitants, of whom 1,072,592 are Catholics, spread over an area of 531 miles. There are 856 priests, including 274 religious belonging to 14 different congregations. Among its institutions are: 1 seminary, 3 colleges and universities (Seton Hall University), 14 orphanages, 9 hospitals, 3 homes for the elderly, and one for the blind.
A suffragan of New York, the diocese was subsequently divided to form those of Trenton (15 July 1881), Paterson (16 Dec. 1937), and Camden (9 Dec. 1937), which in 1937 became suffragans of N., elevated to an archi-
archdiocese. Several Catholics were already present there as early as 1672, and the territory was visited by the Jesuits Harvey and Gage; but the spirit of the colony was always anti-Catholic, even after the law of “religious toleration” of 1697. The first parishes in the State were St. Francis in Trenton (1814) and St. John in N. (1828). During the nineteenth century the Catholics increased in number, and N. was then separated from New York. The first bishop was Msgr. James Roosevelt Bayley, consecrated on 30 Oct. 1853.