TOTOWA, N.J. -- The Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, says the world’s oldest Roman Catholic bishop has died.  The Rev. Peter Gerety was 104. 

Gerety died Tuesday night at St. Joseph’s Home for the Elderly in Totowa. 

Gerety served as the archbishop of Newark from 1974 until he retired as archbishop emeritus in 1986.  He is credited with restoring the diocese’s finances. 

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Gerety was born in Shelton, Connecticut, and was ordained for service in the Archdiocese of Hartford in 1939.  Gerety focused his energy on the city’s black Catholic community, founding an interracial social and religious center and the New Haven chapter of the Urban League. 

He became the bishop of Portland, Maine, in 1969.