While every year of the past decade brought its share of changes to the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Peoria, the 2010s were also marked by remarkable stability.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, began and ended the decade as our bishop — in fact, in April he will mark 18 years as our eighth shepherd. While our founding bishop, John Lancaster Spalding, served for three decades, Bishop Jenky is nearing the lengths of service of three other historical figures: Bishop Edward W. O‘Rourke (19 years), Bishop Edmund Dunne (20), and Archbishop Joseph Schlarman (21).

This decade found our bishop at the forefront of religious liberty issues, especially as same-sex unions and the eventual federal redefinition of marriage impacted the work and scope of Catholic Charities. He called for special years in the diocese devoted to the rosary (2010), consecrated life (2015), and divine mercy (2016). He ordained 25 new priests.

His annual teaching documents, or Festival Letters, covered topics ranging from vocations to the Bible, from St. Joseph, to this year’s call for renewed diocese-wide witness to the church’s teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. His 2011 letter helped prepare the diocese for one of the biggest changes that affected every Catholic parish and Mass — the new translation of the Roman Missal. We entered the decade by answering “The Lord be with you” with “And also with you.” Soon the reply was “And with your Spirit.”

Other changes in the diocese last decade included:

• the continued growth of OSF HealthCare through mergers, acquisitions and new construction
• the “clustering” of parishes after the Growing in Faith Together diocese-wide study in 2011-12
• the departure from our diocese of two religious orders of men — the Rosminians and the Franciscan Friars of the St. John the Baptist Province.

Communities and parishes in our diocese responded to tornado devastation (including Washington, Gifford, and Ottawa), flooding, blizzards, and even a natural gas explosion in Canton. Parishes in towns including Streator and Spring Valley merged to form united faith communities.

What will the new decade bring? God only knows those headlines. One that we pray will soon be written is the beatification of our diocese’s famous native son, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen. The advancement and delays in his cause was a major story whose threads ran throughout the last decade. We echo Bishop Jenky’s confidence that the days of our diocese hosting a global celebration of Fulton Sheen’s holiness are on the horizon at the dawn of this new decade.

Meanwhile, Bishop Jenky’s 2020 Festival Letter provided a 2020 vision with its focus on our church’s central teaching on the gift of the Eucharist — the source and summit of our Faith. It’s our sure foundation for whatever lies ahead.

One other thing that’s been stable? The staff of The Catholic Post. We end this decade as we began it, with Tom Dermody as editor, Jennifer Willems as assistant editor, Sonia Nelson as advertising manager and Theresa Lindley handling production. We thank you for the privilege of serving you, even through this decade of changing technology, and pledge our best efforts in 2020 and beyond.