Peoria, A Community of Faith

Religious Diversity

Whether Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, folk religion, Unitarian, or unaffiliated, you can find a little corner of Peoria where your heart, soul, and spirit can thrive. Peoria County is home to over 500 places of worship.

Since Peoria’s cultural diversity is vast, religious beliefs and secularism go hand in hand. The different communities blend beautifully to display a tapestry of humans from different faiths.

The cultural kaleidoscope created by Peoria’s diverse lifestyles, including food and festivals, is evident in the Peoria Area events like Oktoberfest, India Fest, River City Soul Fest, Fiesta en el Rio, Christmas on Court, and more.

Life-changing Purpose

Our stakeholders, leaders, and businesses work alongside community organizations to identify solutions to the root causes of poverty and hunger in Greater Peoria. Whether it’s feeding children, empowering women, assisting the needy, responding to disasters, or serving neighborhoods in need, the community’s goal is to bring help and hope where needed.

Countless non-profits, faith-based humanitarian organizations, businesses, churches, and individuals are fueled by kindness and compassion to aid local charity initiatives.

Peoria’s own Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

Archbishop Fulton John Sheen, best known for his popular syndicated television program, Life is Worth Living, is one of Catholicism’s most widely recognized figures of the twentieth century and was raised and educated in the Roman Catholic faith in Peoria, Illinois.

Fulton Sheen never forgot his Peoria roots and his home diocese. The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation has assembled a museum where Sheen’s lifework is available for all to see. The exhibit is located in the Spalding Pastoral Center on the same historic campus where young Fulton Sheen graduated from the Cathedral grade school and Spalding High School.  Only one block away stands the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception where Fulton Sheen learned to serve Mass and was ordained a priest on September 20, 1919.

In 2019, Pope Francis signed a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to Archbishop Sheen’s intercession—the healing of an infant whose heart didn’t beat for 61 minutes after he was born—clearing the way for beatification.