"It has not always been easy to be Catholic in New Jersey" - The Monitor, 10/25/06

For well over 300 years of recorded history in New Jersey, the social and political environment was hostile to Catholics.

The laws against Catholics were stringent. Some of those restrictions remained until they were finally dropped from the state Constitution of 1844.

Some of the earliest constitutions could be described as providing “liberty of conscience to all persons except Papists.”