Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden is a Roman Catholic diocese of the Latin Church in New Jersey, United States, consisting of 62 parishes and about 475,000 Catholics in the southern New Jersey counties of Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem.
The Bishop of Camden presides from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden, although most major ceremonies are held at Saint Agnes Catholic Church in Blackwood. Some liturgies are held at St. Joseph Pro-Cathedral, Camden.
Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan has been bishop of the diocese since 2013.

History

established the Diocese of Camden on December 9, 1937, by breaking it off from the Diocese of Trenton. The oldest parish is St. Mary, which was founded in 1848.
On April 2, 2008, Bishop Joseph A. Galante announced the closing of roughly half of the parishes in the diocese. This followed a previous announcement of the closing of various Catholic schools. The Diocese of Camden was led by Bishop Galante until his resignation was accepted on Jan. 8, 2013.

School mergers and closures

Sacred Heart School was a Catholic elementary school located in Mount Ephraim, New Jersey for 50 years, from 1947 to 1997. It was presided over by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden before closing in 1997 as the result of low enrollment and a pending merger. Students were transferred to Annunciation BVM School in Bellmawr, New Jersey.
Annunciation School was subsequently closed by the diocese at the end of the following 2007-08 school year and was merged into the St. Francis de Sales elementary school in Barrington on its site as a new school, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. This merged school lasted only one year. It closed after the 2008-09 school year in the face of further declining enrollment and rising costs.
On April 17, 2020, the Diocese of Camden announced plans to close five of its schools at the end of the 2019-2020 school year, including football powerhouse Saint Joseph High School in Hammonton, Wildwood Catholic High School in Wildwood and three elementary schools.

Sexual abuse scandal

On February 13, 2019, all of the Catholic Dioceses based in New Jersey released the names of clergy who had been credibly accused of sexually abusing children since 1940. Of the 188 listed, 57 were based in the Diocese of Camden. Newark Archbishop Cardinal Joseph Tobin, who leads the Ecclesiastical province where the Diocese of Camden is based, also acknowledged that the alleged acts of abuse committed by the clergy listed were reported to law enforcement agencies. On February 9, 2020, it was reported that all five Catholic dioceses across the state of New Jersey, which includes the Diocese of Camden, had paid over $11 million to compensate 105 claims of sex abuse committed by Catholic clergy. Of these 105 claims, 98 were compensated through settlements. The payments also do not involve 459 other sex abuse cases in these dioceses which are still not resolved.

Bishops

The following are lists of bishops and auxiliary bishops of the diocese and their years of service, followed by other priests of this diocese who became bishops :

Bishops of Camden

  1. Bartholomew J. Eustace
  2. Justin J. McCarthy
  3. Celestine Damiano, Archbishop
  4. George H. Guilfoyle
  5. James T. McHugh, appointed Coadjutor Bishop and later Bishop of Rockville Centre
  6. Nicholas Anthony DiMarzio, appointed Bishop of Brooklyn
  7. Joseph A. Galante
  8. Dennis J. Sullivan

    Auxiliary Bishop

; High schools