- Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton
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Diocese of Trenton
Dioecesis TrentonensisLocation Country United States Territory South-Central New Jersey counties of Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, and Ocean Ecclesiastical province Metropolitan Province of Newark Metropolitan Trenton, New Jersey Statistics Population
- Catholics
850,000Parishes 111 Information Denomination Roman Catholic Rite Roman Rite Established August 2, 1881 Cathedral Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption Patron saint Blessed Virgin Mary Current leadership Pope Benedict XVI Bishop David M. O'Connell
Bishop of TrentonMetropolitan Archbishop John Joseph Myers
Archbishop of NewarkEmeritus Bishops John Mortimer Smith, and John C. Reiss Map 
Website dioceseoftrenton.org The Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in southern New Jersey, United States. Its ecclesiastic territory includes the counties of Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean, and Mercer (where the capital city of Trenton is located).
Pope Leo XIII created the Diocese of Trenton in 1881, carving it out of the Diocese of Newark, which then covered all of New Jersey.
When first created, the Diocese of Trenton, which has since been further subdivided, included 14 counties and covered two-thirds of the area of New Jersey. It had about 35,000 Catholics in a general population of 413,693, with 51 priests. Its first bishop was Michael J. O’Farrell.
In its 128-year history, the diocese has been divided twice to establish new dioceses.
Contents
History
Catholicism in the diocese dates back more than 250 years.
Jesuit Father Joseph Greaton arrived in Philadelphia in 1729 and built Old St. Joseph Church, on Willings Alley at Fourth St. About 1732, he took charge of the West Jersey mission territory extending from Trenton to Cape May.
A few years later, visits to the widely scattered Catholic families were recorded by Father Theodore Schneider, another Jesuit, who visited the iron furnaces in the southern part of the state in 1744. Traveling on horseback, by stagecoach and riverboat, the energetic Jesuit covered all of south and central Jersey, as well as parts of eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.
When Schneider died in 1764, Father Ferdinand Steinmeyer, another Jesuit, succeeded him. Also known as Father Ferdinand Farmer, he traversed the state from Philadelphia to New York twice yearly visiting scattered Catholic families. He continued the ministry until his death in 1786.
When the dioceses of New York and Philadelphia were established in 1808, West Jersey, the southern part, came under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the bishops of Philadelphia. When the Diocese of Newark was established in 1853, all of the state was in its jurisdiction.
First parish
About 1804, records show, mass was celebrated in the printing office of Isaac Collins at Queen and Second Streets (now State and Broad Streets) in the heart of the Trenton business district.
From 1811 to l8l4, mass was celebrated in the Federal St. home of John Baptist Sartori, a consular official who represented the commercial interests of the Papal States in Italy.
When the number of Catholics coming to mass became too much for the Sartori residence, it was decided to purchase land for a church to accommodate the growing congregation.
With the encouragement of Michael Egan, the first Bishop of Philadelphia, Sartori and John Hargous bought a plot at Lamberton and Market Streets. A small brick church was erected and dedicated to St. John in 1814. The congregation was the first Catholic parish in the state.
Some time later, a new parish church was built on South Broad Street. Following a devastating fire in 1883, a new church was erected and dedicated to the Sacred Heart. As the population of Trenton grew, new churches were built in Bordentown and Lambertville. In the 1860s, Father Anthony Smith saw the need for a new parish in the northern section of the city and, in 1865, purchased land where St. Mary Cathedral stands.
The site of the Cathedral is the place where Col. Johann Gottlieb Rall, commander of the Hessian troops, had his headquarters in December 1776 during the Battle of Trenton. Construction of the church took five years, and it was dedicated by Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley of Newark on the Sunday of 1 January 1871.
Diocese established
In 1860, there were 25,000 Catholics in New Jersey, and by 1880 there were 130,000.
In 1881, Pope Leo XIII established the Diocese of Trenton to serve the Catholics of the southern part of the state and named Father Michael J. O’Farrell of New York as its first bishop. At the time, the diocese had 68 churches, 23 parochial schools and 51 priests.
New Jersey's Catholic population continued to grow with immigration from Italy and eastern Europe. By 1910 it had grown to 440,000, and by 1930 it had climbed to 1,050,000.
In 1937, Pope Pius XI created the Diocese of Camden to serve Catholics in the six counties in the southern part of the state, under Bishop Bartholomew Eustace. The now smaller Diocese of Trenton had a Catholic population of 210,114 in eight counties with 212 diocesan priests, 121 parishes and 70 parochial schools.
Much of the growth of the Catholic population in the Trenton Diocese took place during the episcopacy of Bishop George W. Ahr, from 1952 to his retirement, on 23 June 1979, an era in which the Catholic population grew to more than 800,000.
Ahr established more than 50 new parishes and blessed more than 250 new buildings, including 100 new churches and parish centers and 90 schools and school additions.
On 14 March 1956, in the midst of the tremendous growth, tragedy struck when fire destroyed St. Mary’s Cathedral, claiming the lives of the rector, Msgr. Richard T. Crean, and two housekeepers.
In a diocese that was growing and a world that was changing, Ahr took part in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council and guided implementation of the council’s decrees in the diocese.
Centennial
On 22 April 1980, John C. Reiss, who had been auxiliary bishop of the diocese since 1967, succeeded Ahr and led the celebration of the diocesan centennial in August 1981.[citation needed]
Just a few months later, on 24 November 1980, the diocese, now with a Catholic population of 850,000, was divided again to establish the Diocese of Metuchen, which included the four northern counties of Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren.[citation needed]
Following the split, the Diocese of Trenton had a population of 447,915 Catholics in Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean counties, with 119 parishes served by 193 diocesan priests and 105 religious priests.
After initiating the Emmaus program of priestly spirituality in 1982, Reiss implemented the Renew process for lay spirituality, which was intended to bring parishioners together in small faith-sharing groups in five seasons from 1985 through 1987.
In 1986, Reiss approved a new vicariate structure for administration of the diocese. On 13 January 1991, he opened the Fourth Diocesan Synod during a Mass in St. Mary's Cathedral. It came 60 years after the Third Synod.
On 30 June 1992, Reiss launched Faith-In-Service, a diocesan capital and endowment fund campaign, to try to ensure the financial stability of diocesan services. The campaign had a goal of $32 million and raised more than $38 million in gifts and pledges.
In 1982, Msgr. Edward U. Kmiec, who had been master of ceremonies and secretary for Bishop Ahr and later for Bishop Reiss, was named Auxiliary Bishop of Trenton. Ten years later, Bishop Kmiec was appointed Bishop of Nashville, Tennessee.
On 21 November 1995, John M. Smith was named Coadjutor Bishop of Trenton, to eventually succeed Reiss as bishop of the diocese. Smith, a native of the Newark Archdiocese and a former Auxiliary Bishop of Newark, at the time was Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida.
On reaching the age of 75, Reiss submitted his letter of retirement to Pope John Paul II. The letter was accepted, effective July 1, 1997, and that day Smith became Chief Shepherd of the Diocese of Trenton. Upon reaching the age of 75, Smith submitted his letter of retirement to Pope Benedict XVI. The letter was accepted, effective December 1, 2010, and that day Bishop David M. O'Connell, the former President of Catholic University of America, and recently appointed coadjutor, became Bishop of Trenton.
Bishops of the Diocese of Trenton
- Michael J. O'Farrell (1881-1894)
- James Augustine McFaul (1894-1917)
- Thomas J. Walsh (1917-1928)
- John J. McMahon (1928-1932)
- Moses E. Kiley (1934-1940)
- William A. Griffin (1940-1950)
- George W. Ahr (1950-1979)
- John C. Reiss (1980-1997)
- John Mortimer Smith (1997-2010)
- David M. O'Connell (2010 to present)
Education
High schools
- Christian Brothers Academy*, Lincroft
- Holy Cross High School, Delran
- Mater Dei High School, New Monmouth
- Monsignor Donovan High School, Toms River
- Notre Dame High School, Lawrenceville
- Red Bank Catholic High School, Red Bank
- St. John Vianney High School, Holmdel
- St. Rose High School, Belmar
- Stuart Country Day School, Princeton
- Trenton Catholic Academy, Hamilton
- Villa Victoria Academy, Ewing Township
- *Operates independently with the concurrence of the Diocese.
Ecclesiastical province
Further information: List of the Catholic bishops of the United States#Province of NewarkSee also
- John Joseph Cardinal Carberry (secretary to Bishop Moses E. Kiley)
- List of the Catholic cathedrals of the United States
- List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States
- Plenary Councils of Baltimore
- Roman Catholicism in the United States
- Catholicism and American politics
- History of Roman Catholicism in the United States
References
External links
- Diocese of Trenton official website
- New Jersey Provincial Directory
Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Newark Archdiocese of Newark · Diocese of Camden · Diocese of Metuchen · Diocese of Paterson · Diocese of TrentonRoman Catholic Ecclesiastical Provinces in the United States Anchorage · Atlanta · Baltimore · Boston · Chicago · Cincinnati · Denver · Detroit · Dubuque · Galveston-Houston · Hartford · Indianapolis · Kansas City · Los Angeles · Louisville · Miami · Milwaukee · Mobile · New Orleans · New York · Newark · Oklahoma City · Omaha · Philadelphia · Portland in Oregon · Saint Louis · Saint Paul and Minneapolis · San Antonio · San Francisco · Santa Fe · Seattle · WashingtonCategories:- Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton
- Trenton, New Jersey
- Religious organizations established in 1881
- Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 19th century
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