The first Catholic priests to visit the area that is now Camden were Jesuit priests from Old St. Joseph's Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They started to minister to Catholics in southern New Jersey in the 1740s where Catholicism was officially banned from being practiced. Masses and other services were celebrated in private homes. In 1796 the Augustinian priests from St. Augustine Church started ministering to Catholics in the region. They were followed sometime later by priests from the St. Mary's Cathedral in Philadelphia who served Camden until the Diocese of Newark was established in 1853. Camden became a mission of the Catholic parish in Gloucester, which had received its first resident pastor in 1851. Mass was celebrated a couple times a months in Camden in private homes and in public halls. In 1852 the hall that was regularly used for Mass was destroyed in a fire set by Nativists.