Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria

The Diocese of Peoria ( la, Diœcesis Peoriensis, Peoria, Illinois) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the central Illinois region of the United States. The Diocese of Peoria is a suffragan diocese within the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Chicago.

Territory

The Diocese of Peoria was canonically erected on February 12, 1875. Its territory was taken from the former Diocese of Chicago. Due to the rapid growth of the Church in Central Illinois and the concern of Bishop Thomas Foley of Chicago about his inability to administer the area, given similar or greater growth of Chicago. He requested a division of his diocese in 1872, but the Holy See did not act upon it immediately. After another appeal in 1874, this one supported by Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick of St. Louis, Pope Pius IX on February 12, 1875, erected a new diocese encompassing twenty-three counties in Central Illinois from the Mississippi River to the Indiana border. Peoria was chosen as the see city.

Presently, the Diocese of Peoria comprises the Counties of Bureau, Champaign, DeWitt, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Henry, Knox, LaSalle, Livingston, Logan, Marshall, Mason, McDonough, McLean, Mercer, Peoria, Piatt, Putnam, Rock Island, Schuyler, Stark, Tazewell, Vermilion, Warren and Woodford.

History

Catholicism in this region dates from the days of Jacques Marquette, who rested at the Native American village of Peoria on his voyage up the Illinois River in 1673. Opposite the present site of the episcopal city, Robert de La Salle and Henri de Tonti in 1680 built Fort Crèvecoeur, in which Mass was celebrated and the Gospel preached by the Recollect Fathers, Gabriel Ribourdi, Zenobius Membre, and Louis Hennepin. With some breaks in the succession, the line of missionaries extends to within a short period of the founding of modern Peoria. In 1839 Father Raho, an Italian, visited Peoria, remaining long enough to build the old stone church in Kickapoo, a small town twelve miles distant. St. Mary's, the first Catholic church in the city proper, was erected by Father John A. Drew in 1846. Among his successors was the poet, Rev. Abram J. Ryan.

Many of the early Irish immigrants came to work on the Illinois and Michigan Canal; owing to the failure of the contracting company, they received their pay in land scrip instead of cash, and were thus forced to settle upon hitherto untilled farm-land. These Irish farmers, with the Germans, were followed by Poles, Slovaks, Slovenians, Croats, Lithuanians, and Italians who came to work in the coal mines. They were first organized in parishes looked after by priests of their own nationality.

The first appointee to the newly-established see of Peoria, Fr. Michael J. Hurley, requested to be spared the responsibility of organizing and governing the new diocese.

John Lancaster Spalding was consecrated first Bishop of Peoria, on 1 May 1877. He was stricken with paralysis tc 1905, and resigned the see in 1908. ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' article

On May 11, 2020, Louis Tylka was appointed as coadjutor bishop of the diocese. He succeeded Daniel Robert Jenky on March 3, 2022

Bishops

Bishops of Peoria

# John Lancaster Spalding (1876–1908)
# Edmund Michael Dunne (1909–1929)
# Joseph Henry Leo Schlarman (1930–1951), appointed archbishop ''ad personam'' in 1951
# William Edward Cousins (1952–1958), appointed archbishop of Milwaukee
# John Baptist Franz (1959–1971)
# Edward William O'Rourke (1971–1990)
# John Joseph Myers (1990–2001; coadjutor 1987-1990), appointed archbishop of Newark
# Daniel Robert Jenky (2002–2022)
# Louis Tylka (2022- Present, Coadjutor 2020–2022)

Auxiliary bishops

* Peter Joseph O'Reilly (1900-1923)

Other priests of this diocese who became bishops

* Gerald Thomas Bergan, appointed bishop of Des Moines and later archbishop of Omaha
* Fulton J. Sheen, appointed auxiliary bishop of New York and later bishop of Rochester, and elevated to archbishop (personal title) upon retirement in 1969

Education

The diocese has thirty-one elementary schools and seven high schools.

High schools

* Alleman High School, Rock Island
* Central Catholic High School, Bloomington
* Marquette High School, Ottawa
* Peoria Notre Dame High School, Peoria
* St. Bede Academy, Peru
* St. Thomas More High School, Champaign
* Schlarman Academy, Danville

Ecclesiastical province

References

Sources

catholic-hierarchy

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria Official SiteProfile of Bishop Daniel R. Jenky
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Peoria
Peoria, Illinois
Religious organizations established in 1875
Peoria