Pioneer Bishops of New Jersey

This blog will discuss bishops that served in New Jersey up to 1900.  For more information about New Jersey, see my blog of May 20, 2017.

The first Catholics to settle in New Jersey came to Elizabeth and Woodbridge (both near New York City) in 1672 and the first Mass in New Jersey was celebrated in Woodbridge in that year.  Since New Jersey was an English colony, Catholics were often persecuted.  William Douglass was elected to the General Assembly in 1668 but was barred from attending the Assembly because he was Catholic.  Father John Ury, who ministered to Catholics in New Jersey, was arrested on false charges and executed in New York City in 1741.  With the establishment of St. Joseph’s Church in Philadelphia in 1733—at the time the only Catholic church in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York—Jesuit priests (such as Theodore Schneider and Ferdinand Farmer) began ministering to the few Catholics scattered throughout the colony.  More Catholics came to New Jersey to work at the glass factories in Salem (South Jersey) and iron furnaces in Ringwood (North Jersey) and Pleasant Mills (South Jersey), among other locations.

In 1808, northern New Jersey became part of the Diocese of New York and southern New Jersey part of the Diocese of Philadelphia.  The first parishes in New Jersey were at West Milford (1765) and Trenton (1814).  As more immigrants came to New Jersey, additional parishes were opened including those in Paterson (1820), Newark (1826), and Pleasant Mills (1830). 

Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Newark in 1853, which consisted of all of New Jersey.  At that time, there were about 40,000 Catholics in New Jersey, in 33 parishes, served by about 30 priests.  Pope Leo XIII created the Diocese of Trenton in 1881 to serve Catholics in central and southern New Jersey.  By this time, the number of Catholics in New Jersey had grown to 190,000.  Continued immigration of Catholics from Ireland, Italy, Germany, Poland, and elsewhere had increased the Catholic population to over one million and led Pope Pius XI in 1937 to create the Province of Newark, making Newark an archdiocese, and to establish the new Dioceses of Camden and Paterson.  Pope John Paul II established the Diocese of Metuchen in 1981.

James Roosevelt Bayley was born in New York City in 1814 and raised as an Episcopalian and became an Episcopal priest in 1839.  He was the nephew of St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton and a relative of two future presidents (Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt).  Influenced by the Oxford Movement and by reading the early church fathers, and by his acquaintance with Father John McCloskey (later Archbishop of New York and the first U.S. cardinal) Bayley converted to Catholicism in 1842 and was ordained a priest for the Catholic Diocese of New York in 1844.  His ordination resulted in his disinheriting a large fortune from his grandfather.  As a priest, he served as vice president and professor at St. John’s College and served as a pastor at a church on Long Island.

Bayley was appointed the first Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, in 1853.  The Diocese of Newark, which at that time consisted of the State of New Jersey, had about 30,000 Catholics—mostly poor Irish and Germans—served by 30 churches and 30 priests.  Bayley invited religious orders to work in the Diocese including the Benedictines, the Sisters of Charity, and the Jesuits.  He also established Seton Hall University and helped found the North American College in Rome.  He wrote several books on U.S. church history and stressed the importance of Catholic education—by 1872 there were 20,000 students in Catholic schools in New Jersey.  Bayley was named Archbishop of Baltimore in 1872.  Never in good health, Bayley died in 1877.

Michael A. Corrigan was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1839.  He was the fifth of nine children of Irish immigrant parents.  His father was a successful owner of a grocery and liquor business.   Corrigan received a good education and was a member of the first class at the North American College in Rome.  He was ordained to the priesthood in 1863 for the Diocese of Newark.  Corrigan served as a professor of theology and history at Seton Hall College and also served as a pastor.  He was named president of Seton Hall in 1869 and also became vicar general for the Diocese.

Corrigan was appointed Bishop of Newark in 1873, which at the time encompassed the State of New Jersey.  He was only 34, and the youngest bishop in the United States, at the time of his appointment.  He built many hospitals and charitable institutions, and he established Catholic reform schools because the State reform schools forced their Catholic inmates to attend Protestant services.  Corrigan also focused on the needs of Italian and German immigrants.  He also supported the Catholic Temperance Union and the Catholic Union—a lay group that defended Catholics against bigotry.  He was named coadjutor archbishop of New York in 1880 and became Archbishop of New York in 1885.  Corrigan died in 1902 of pneumonia.

Winand M. Wigger was born in New York City in 1841.  He was the second of four sons of parents born in Germany.  Sickly as a child, his parents returned to Germany in 1843 hoping the sea voyage would help young Winand.  They returned to New York in 1845 and his father became prosperous.  Wigger applied for seminary in New York but was rejected because of his health.  He was accepted at Newark’s seminary and later studied in Italy, before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Newark in Italy in 1865.  On his return voyage in 1866, cholera broke out among the ship’s passengers and Wigger stayed on board for two weeks after the ship arrived in New York to care for the sick and dying.  Wigger served at several parishes in New Jersey and was noted for his financial abilities, as well as his generosity and concern for the poor and suffering.  He was appointed the third Bishop of Newark in 1881.

Bishop Wigger spoke English, German, French, and Italian.  He established German parishes and schools to allow German immigrants to better maintain their Faith, and also worked with Italian immigrants.  He was a strong supporter of Catholic schools and unsuccessfully sought state funding for them, but he opposed a plan to incorporate parochial schools into the public school system.  He also started construction for the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in 1889.  Bishop Wigger was concerned about alcohol abuse, which met with skepticism from German brewers and Irish saloon keepers.  Despite the creation of the Diocese of Trenton (southern New Jersey), the number of Catholics increased during his time as Bishop from 145,000 to 300,000, and the number of priests and parishes doubled as well.  Bishop Wigger died in 1901.

Michael J. O'Farrell was born in Ireland in 1832 and educated in Dublin and Paris.  He was ordained a priest in 1855, joined the Sulpicians, and served as a pastor of a parish in Montreal.  He eventually became a priest for the Diocese of New York and served in parishes there until 1881 when he was named the first bishop of Trenton.  Bishop O’Farrell took charge of a Diocese with 40,000 Catholics, about 70 churches, and 51 priests.  He built many new parishes and charitable institutions, including an orphanage and home for the aged, despite hostility by non-Catholics in South Jersey.  O’Farrell was noted for being an eloquent speaker and gifted writer.  He died in 1894.

James A. McFaul was born in Ireland in 1850 and came with his family as an infant, first to New York City and then to New Jersey.  His father was a farmer and McFaul became a store clerk at age 15.  He studied in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, initially intending to become an attorney before deciding on the priesthood.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Newark in 1877.  He served in Newark until being transferred to a parish in Trenton in 1879.  When Trenton became a Diocese in 1881, McFaul became a priest for the new Diocese.  He soon became private secretary to Bishop O’Farrell, then chancellor for the Diocese, and eventually vicar general.  He was named Bishop of Trenton in 1894.

Bishop McFaul was noted for his speaking and writing abilities.  He gave a speech in 1909 that accused some university professors of teaching their students information that was in conflict with accepted moral standards.  He was one of the founders of the American Federation of Catholic Societies.  The Catholic population of the Diocese had grown to almost three quarters of a million by the time of his death—due to immigration from Italy and Eastern Europe.  As a result, he built many new churches and schools—including a college in Plainfield—and established several Catholic service institutions while maintaining the Diocese’s solid financial standing.  He died in 1917.