William N. McNulty (1829–1922) was an American Catholic priest and dean, who arrived in New York from his native Ballyshannon, Ireland, in 1850, during the Great Famine. In the mid nineteenth century, there few Catholic facilities in Passaic County, New Jersey. He is responsible for much of the foundation of the structural and institutional infrastructure of the Catholic Church's presence in Paterson, New Jersey. Towards the later years of his career, he was offered but refused the Pope's appointment of himself as domestic prelate. McNulty, sometimes called Father "Mac", represented the moral authority within the Irish and German Catholic communities in Paterson. Contemporary reports credit McNulty with helping to diffuse the 1880 Garret Rock May Day riot when he addressed the rioters. During his lifetime, the Pope named him to the office of papal chamberlain, an office typically reserved for European nobility. McNulty was buried in front of Paterson's St. John's Church under a bronze monument which depicts him counseling a parish youth.

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is a historic Catholic cathedral and parish church located in Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson. The cathedral was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.