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.

Diocese of Camden

Dioecesis Camdensis
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
Location
Country United States
Territory South Jersey
Ecclesiastical provinceMetropolitan Province of Newark
Population
- Catholics
475,000 (34.5%)
Information
DenominationCatholic
Sui iuris churchLatin Church
RiteRoman Rite
EstablishedDecember 9, 1937
CathedralCathedral of the Immaculate Conception
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
BishopDennis J. Sullivan
Map
Website
camdendiocese.org

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
St. Joseph Pro-Cathedral

Pope Pius XI established the Diocese of Camden on December 9, 1937, by breaking it off from the Diocese of Trenton. The oldest parish is St. Mary (Gloucester City), 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 (grades K-8) 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.[1][2]

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.[3] 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.[4]

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.[5][6]

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.[7] Of the 188 listed, 57 were based in the Diocese of Camden.[7] 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.[7] 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.[8] Of these 105 claims, 98 were compensated through settlements.[8] The payments also do not involve 459 other sex abuse cases in these dioceses which are still not resolved.[8] On July 31, 2020, the Diocese of Camden suspended future payments to alleged victims of clergy sex abuse, citing the financial impact stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.[9]

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 (shown here is their service in this diocese):

Camden Diocesan Center

Bishops of Camden
  1. Bartholomew J. Eustace (1938-1956)
  2. Justin J. McCarthy (1957-1959)
  3. Celestine Damiano (1960-1967), Archbishop (personal title)
  4. George H. Guilfoyle (1968-1989)
  5. James T. McHugh (1989-1998), appointed Coadjutor Bishop and later Bishop of Rockville Centre
  6. Nicholas Anthony DiMarzio (1999-2003), appointed Bishop of Brooklyn
  7. Joseph A. Galante (2004-2013)
  8. Dennis J. Sullivan (2013–present)

Auxiliary Bishop

Other priests of the diocese who became bishops

Schools
Main article: List of schools in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden
High schools

Ecclesiastical province
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See also
  • 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
  1. Smith, Patricia (27 April 1997). "Families Lament Plan To Close Sacred Heart Some Have Sent Children To The School In Mount Ephraim For Three Generations". Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  2. "Our History". Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  3. Staff. "In the fall, different schools will open", Catholic Star Herald, June 19, 2008. Accessed August 25, 2013. "Annunciation, Bellmawr, will merge with St. Francis de Sales, Barrington, for a new school, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, at the Barrington site."
  4. Staff. "Catholic school in Barrington is shut down", The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 18, 2009. Accessed August 25, 2013. "Just one month after saying that Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Regional School in Barrington would reopen next year, the Diocese of Camden announced yesterday that it was closing the school for good. Bishop Joseph Galante explained in a letter that the school - in operation for just one year - had suffered an enrollment decline so steep that five pastors whose parishes sent children to Sacred Heart had urged him to close it."
  5. "Five Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Camden to close at end of school year". Diocese of Camden. 17 April 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  6. Yates, Riley (17 April 2020). "5 N.J. Catholic schools to close, including South Jersey football powerhouse". NJ.com. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  7. NJ.com, Kelly Heyboer | NJ Advance Media for; NJ.com, Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for (2019-02-13). "N.J. Catholic dioceses release names of 188 priests and deacons accused of sexual abuse of children". nj. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  8. "Price tag for priest sex abuse in New Jersey? $11 million and climbing". KYW. 2020-02-09. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  9. Roebuck, Jeremy (July 31, 2020). "Camden's Roman Catholic diocese suspends payments to clergy abuse victims, citing COVID-19 financial stress". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved August 2, 2020.

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