Bartholomew J. Eustace - Episcopacy

Episcopacy

On December 16, 1937, Eustace was appointed the first Bishop of the newly-erected Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, by Pope Pius XI. He received his episcopal consecration on March 25, 1938 from Cardinal Patrick Joseph Hayes, with Bishops Edward Kelly and Stephen Joseph Donahue serving as co-consecrators, at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The new diocese was located in South Jersey and included Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Salem, and Gloucester Counties. There were then 49 parishes, 31 mission churches, 86 priests, 35 parochial schools, and 100,000 Catholics. Eustace was installed by Archbishop Thomas Walsh at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on May 4, 1938. During his installation, he dedicated the diocese to the Virgin Mary.

During his eighteen years as bishop, Eustace established St. Mary Catholic Home at Cherry Hill in 1941, and Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center (the only Catholic hospital in the diocese) at Camden in 1950. Also confronted with a shortage of priests, he recruited clergy and seminarians from New York and Ireland. He encouraged the greater involvement of the laity and supported the Holy Name Society. Eustace also promoted special ministries to African Americans and Hispanics. In 1940 he incorporated Catholic Charities into the diocese. Between 1938 and 1956 he founded thirty-one parishes; opened twenty-five missions (sixteen of which later became parishes); established three high schools and expanded six others; established twenty-two elementary schools and expanded fourteen others; and erected fifty churches, thirty rectories, and twenty convents. He increased the number of priests by 109, and the number of Catholics by 100,000.

Eustace was diagnosed with diabetes in January 1941, and suffered three heart attacks between 1950 and 1955. He was confined to his bed at his residence in Haddonfield by November 1956, and died shortly afterwards at age 69. His Requiem Mass was celebrated by Cardinal James Francis McIntyre on December 15, 1956. He is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Cherry Hill.