Roman Catholic Diocese of Venice in Florida

The first Spanish explorers entered what is now the diocese in the 16th century. Their arrival brought the first Catholic missionaries to the region. Conquistador Juan Ponce de León was the first European to arrive in Florida, in 1513. He explored its west coast between 1513 and 1521.

On the west coast, Ponce de Leon encountered the Calusa Native American tribe, who at first welcomed the Spanish. However. after the Spaniards desecrated their sacred places and began building a mission, the Calusa attacked them. After being injured in one attack, Ponce de Leon abandoned the expedition and his mission.

In 1539, Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto began an exploration of the west coast of Florida that would last until 1542. DeSoto led an expedition of 10 ships and 620 men. His company included 12 priests, whose job it was to evangelize the Native Americans. His priests celebrated mass almost every day..

DeSotp landed near what is now Bradenton on May 25, 1539. Later, when DeSoto landed at Shaw's Point near the mouth of Tampa Bay, the men named it "La Bahia de Espiritu Santo," in honor of the Holy Spirit. The sheer number of DeSoto's forces caused the Calusa to abandon their settlements along the harbor entrance.

In 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, founder of Saint Augustine and Governor of Spanish Florida, sought peace with the Calusa. He was then able to found a military outpost. Menendez sought assistance from the Jesuits, who agreed to send a small contingent to Florida.

Menéndez built San Antón de Carlos mission at Mound Key in what is now Lee County. He also built a fort and left a garrison to guard it. San Antón de Carlos was the first Jesuit mission in the Western Hemisphere and the first Catholic presence within the Venice area. Father Juan Rogel and Brother Francisco de Villareal spent the winter at the mission studying the Calusa language, then started evangelizing among the tribe in southern Florida. A chapel was built at the mission in 1567. Due to frequent conflict with the Calusa, the Spanish abandoned Mound Key area in 1569.

In the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, the Spanish Empire ceded all of Florida to the United States, which established the Florida Territory in 1821.[2] For Catholics, the territory was still under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Havana. In 1825, Pope Leo XIII erected the Vicariate of Alabama and Florida, which included all of Florida.

A quarter century later, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Savannah in 1850, including the new state of Florida minus the Florida Panhandle region. [3] However, seven years later, Pope Pius IX stripped Florida from the Diocese of Savannah and created a new Apostolic Vicariate of Florida. Finally, in 1870 the vicariate was converted into the Diocese of St. Augustine, which included the Venice area. The Diocese of Venice would remain part of several Florida dioceses for the next 114 years.

After the end of the American Civil War in 1865, Catholic missionaries from dioceses in Savannah, St. Augustine, and Tampa, began visiting the Venice area. In 1889, the Venice area was placed under the jurisdiction of the Jesuit Order in Tampa. Jesuit priests made regular visits to Bradenton, Fort Myers, Arcadia, and adjacent missions. The first missions and Catholic communities established by these Jesuits in southwest Florida were:

• Sacred Heart in Bradenton (1868)
• Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (later St. Francis Xavier) in Fort Myers (1878)
• St. Paul in Arcadia (1882)
• Sacred Heart in Punta Gorda (1888)
• , St. Martha in Sarasota (1889)
• , St. Michael in Wauchula (1915)
• , St. Joseph in Bradenton (1915)
• , and St. Catherine in Sebring (1918)

Diocesan Catholic Center

The Diocese of Venice in Florida was erected by Pope John Paul II in 1984 from parts of the Archdiocese of Miami, the Diocese of Orlando, and the Diocese of St. Petersburg; the pope named Auxiliary Bishop John J. Nevins of the Archdiocese of Miami as the founding bishop.

A memorial to the eucharist and a memorial cross was built by Nevins in 1994 at De Soto National Memorial in Bradenton. In 2006, Father Frank Dewane from the Diocese of Green Bay was appointed as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Venice by Pope Benedict XVI.

When Nevins resigned in 2007, Dewane automatically succeeded him as bishop of Venice. As of 2023, Dewane is the current bishop.

In August 2003, three Florida siblings sued the Diocese of Venice and Bishop Nevins, alleging sexual molestation by William Romero, a former diocesan priest. Between 1979 and 1982, while in an sexual relationship with their mother, Romero allegedly sexually abused the children in Hobe Sound, Florida.[4]

In November 2005, a St. Petersburg man filed a lawsuit against Nevins and the diocese, claiming that he was sexually abused as a minor by George E. Brennan, a diocesan priest. The plaintiff claimed to have been sodomized in 1984 four times at Incarnation Catholic Church in Sarasota. The suit said that Nevins covered up the alleged crime.[5]

The diocese settled a lawsuit with a Fort Myers man in 2014 regarding Jean Ronald Joseph, a diocesan priest in Holmes Beach. The plaintiff had claimed that Joseph sexually abused him in the 1990's. Joseph was ultimately removed from his posting and eventually laicized.[6]

1. John Joseph Nevins (1984-2007)
2. Frank Joseph Dewane (2007–present, coadjutor bishop 2006-2007)

• Bishop Verot High School, Fort Myers
• Cardinal Mooney High School, Sarasota
• St. John Neumann High School, Naples
• Rhodora J. Donahue Academy, Ave Maria

• St. Charles Borromeo School, Port Charlotte
• St. Ann School, Naples
• St. Elizabeth Seton School, Naples
• St. Catherine Catholic School, Sebring
• St. Andrew School, Cape Coral
• St. Francis Xavier School, Fort Myers
• St. Joseph School, Bradenton
• Epiphany Cathedral School, Venice
• Incarnation School, Sarasota
• St. Martha School, Sarasota
• Rhodora J. Donahue Academy, Ave Maria

• St. Mary Academy at Bishop Nevins Academy, Sarasota