Home diocese of the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.
(CNA) “… The decision to drastically downsize the diocese comes amid declining Mass attendance there as well as a prediction of a shrinking number of priests. Seventy percent of the 145 total priests ministering in the diocese are over the age of 50. According to the diocese’s projections, in the next 10 years, there may be fewer than 100 active priests.
Mass attendance shrank 22% between 2019 and 2022, the diocese says, while infant baptisms are down 27% since 2015-2016. In addition, funerals are down 10% and Catholic marriages are down 34% since 2015-2016…
The Peoria Diocese has become well known as the home diocese of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, a renowned 20th-century Catholic bishop and televangelist whose sainthood cause has progressed in recent years. Sheen was ordained and first served as a priest in the Peoria Diocese.
Note: We are all aware that not all Church decline is the result of the failure to teach the whole Catholic Faith. Some of it is doubtless due to changing demographics. I hope that this is the case in Peoria. But some of our decline in the United States is due to this failure. Archbishop Sheen, following the warnings of the popes, warned us.
+ Archbishop Sheen: The Supper and the Cross
+ Judas, The Third Temptation, and the Social Gospel — Abp. Fulton J. Sheen
+ Catholic Monk Comes Out as Transgender: ‘Deal With Us’
Catholic Critique 