Roman Catholic Diocese of Venice in Florida

Latin Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Florida, USA

For the Italian diocese, see Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice.

Diocese of Venice in Florida

Dioecesis Venetiae in Florida

Epiphany Cathedral

Coat of arms

Location
Country|  United States
Territory| The counties of Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Lee, Manatee, and Sarasota
Ecclesiastical province| Province of Miami
Population
- Catholics|
245,000 (12.4%)
Information
Denomination| Catholic
Sui iuris church| Latin Church
Rite| Roman Rite
Established| June 16, 1984
Cathedral| Epiphany Cathedral
Patron saint| Our Lady of Mercy
St. Mark the Evangelist[1]
Current leadership
Pope| Francis
Bishop| Frank Joseph Dewane
Metropolitan Archbishop| Thomas Wenski
Map
Website
dioceseofvenice.org

The Diocese of Venice in Florida (Latin: Dioecesis Venetiae in Florida) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory–or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southwest Florida in the United States. It was founded on June 16, 1984. Frank Dewane has been bishop since 2007. The Diocese of Venice in Florida is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Miami.

## Territory

[edit]

The Diocese of Venice includes ten counties on the west coast of southern Florida.

## History

[edit]

### 1500 to 1550

[edit]

The first Catholic presence in southwest Florida was the expedition of the Spaniard Juan Ponce de León, who arrived somewhere on the Gulf Coast in 1513. Hostility from the native Calusa people prevented him from landing. De Leon returned to the region with a colonizing expedition in 1521, landing near either Charlotte Harbor or the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. His expedition had 200 men, including several priests.[2]

In 1539, Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto, hoping to find gold in Florida, landed near present day Port Charlotte or San Carlos Bay. He named the new territory "La Bahia de Espiritu Santo," in honor of the Holy Spirit.[3] DeSoto led an expedition of 10 ships and 620 men. His company included 12 priests, there to evangelize the Native Americans. His priests celebrated mass almost every day.[3] Unwilling to attack such a large expedition, the Calusa evacuated their settlements near the landing area. The De Soto expedition later proceeded to the Tampa Bay area and then into central Florida.

The Spanish missionary Reverend Luis de Cáncer arrived by sea with several Dominican priests in present day Bradenton in 1549. Encountering a seemingly peaceful party of Tocobaga clan members, they decided to travel on to Tampa Bay. Several of the priests went overland with the Tocobaga while Cáncer and the rest of the party sailed to Tampa Bay to meet them.[4]

Arriving at Tampa Bay, Cáncer learned, while still on his ship, that the Tocobaga had murdered the priests in the overland party. Ignoring advice to leave the area, Cáncer went ashore, where he too was murdered.[4] The Spanish attempted to establish another mission in the Tampa Bay area in 1567, but it was soon abandoned.[5]

### 1550 to 1700

[edit]

The first Catholics in Eastern Florida were a group of Spanish Jesuits who founded a mission in 1566 on Upper Matecumbe Key in the Florida Keys. After several years of disease and turbulent relations with the Native American inhabitants, the missionaries returned to Spain.[6]The Spanish attempted to establish another mission in the Tampa Bay area in 1567, but soon abandoned it.[7]

In 1571, Spanish Jesuit missionaries made an brief, unsuccessful trip to Northern Florida. Two years later, in 1573, several Spanish Franciscan missionaries arrived in present day St. Augustine. They established the Mission Nombre de Dios in 1587 at a village of the Timucuan people.[8] By 1606, Florida was under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Havana in Cuba.

In 1565, the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the founder of Saint Augustine and Governor of Spanish Florida, brokered a peace agreement with the Calusa peoples. This agreement allowed him to build the San Antón de Carlos mission at Mound Key in what is now Lee County. Menéndez de Avilés also built a fort at Mound Key and established a garrison.

San Antón de Carlos was the first Jesuit mission in the Western Hemisphere and the first Catholic presence within the Venice area. Juan Rogel and Francisco de Villareal spent the winter at the mission studying the Calusa language, then started evangelizing among the Calusa in southern Florida. The Jesuits built a chapel at the mission in 1567. Conflicts with the Calusa soon increased, prompting Menéndez de Avilés to abandon San Antón de Carlos in 1569.[9]

### 1700 to 1800

[edit]

By the early 1700's, the Spanish Franciscans had established a network of 40 missions in Northern and Central Florida, with 70 priests ministering to over 25,000 Native American converts.[10]

However, raids by British settlers and their Creek Native American allies from the Carolinas eventually shut down the missions. Part of the reason for the raids was that the Spanish colonists gave refuge to enslaved people who had escaped the Carolinas.[11] A number of Timucuan Catholic converts in Northern Florida were slaughtered during these incursions.

After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Spain ceded all of Florida to Great Britain for the return of Cuba. Given the antagonism of Protestant Great Britain to Catholicism, the majority of the Catholic population in Florida fled to Cuba.[12]

After the American Revolution, Spain regained control of Florida in 1784. from Great Britain.[13] In 1793, the Vatican changed the jurisdiction for Florida Catholics from Havana to the Apostolic Vicariate of Louisiana and the Two Floridas, based in New Orleans.[14]

### 1819 to 1965

[edit]

In the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, Spain ceded all of Florida to the United States, which established the Florida Territory in 1821.[15] In 1825, Pope Leo XII erected the Vicariate of Alabama and Florida, which included all of Florida, based in Mobile Alabama.[16]

In 1850, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Savannah, which included Georgia and all of Florida east of the Apalachicola River. In 1858, Pius IX moved Florida into a new Apostolic Vicariate of Florida and named Bishop Augustin Verot as vicar apostolic.[17] Since the new vicariate had only three priests, Vérot travelled to France in 1859 to recruit more. He succeeded in bringing back seven priests.[18] Finally, in 1870 the Vatican converted the vicariate into the Diocese of St. Augustine, which included the Venice area.[19]

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)

### 1800 to 1900

[edit]

In the early years of the 20th Century, the following parishes were established in the Venice area:

* St. Michael in Wauchula (1915)
* St. Joseph in Bradenton (1915)
* St. Catherine in Sebring (1918)

Epiphany Parish, the first in Venice, was established as a mission in 1935.[20]

After World War II, Bishop Joseph P. Hurley of St. Augustine started a program of purchasing property throughout Florida to develop new parishes for the increasing Catholic population. He also recruited priests from the northern states and Ireland to serve in Florida. St. Ann's, the first parish in Naples, opened in 1950.[21]

### Erection of the diocese

[edit]

Catholic Center – Venice

The Diocese of Venice in Florida was erected by Pope John Paul II in 1984 from parts of the Archdiocese of Miami and the Dioceses of Orlando, and St. Petersburg; the pope named Auxiliary Bishop John J. Nevins of the Archdiocese of Miami as the founding bishop.[22]

Nevins built a memorial to the eucharist and a memorial cross in 1994 at De Soto National Memorial in Bradenton. This was to honor the priests from the Cáncer expedition who were killed there in 1549. In 2006, Frank Dewane from the Diocese of Green Bay was appointed as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Venice by Pope Benedict XVI.[23]

### Sex abuse

[edit]

Charles Cikovic pleaded guilty in 1993 to sexual battery on a child and of lewd and lascivious assault on a child. His victim was a 13 year-old girl that he lured into a sexual relationship during 1992 and early 1993. Cikovic was sentenced to six months in prison and 20 years of probation.[24] The girl's family sued the diocese in February 1994; the diocese settled the lawsuit three years later.[25]

In August 2003, three Florida siblings sued the Diocese of Venice in Florida and Bishop Nevins, alleging sexual molestation by William Romero, a former diocesan priest. Between 1979 and 1982, while in a sexual relationship with their mother, Romero allegedly sexually abused the children in Hobe Sound.[26] After receiving allegations against Romero in May 2002, Nevins had suspended him from ministry.[27] The plaintiffs said that the diocese had known of previous complaints against Romero when he served in Naples years before. The diocese ultimately settled four lawsuits involving Romero.

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. 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.[28] Brennan had been arrested in 1991 during a police sting operation against prostitution after exposing himself to an undercover officer. He pleaded no contest to the charge.[29]

Bernard Chojnacki was arrested in June 2011 at Caspersen Beach in Venice on charges of indecent exposure and battery. He was accused of exposing himself and grabbing the genitals of an undercover police officer. The diocese immediately placed Chojnacki on administrative leave.[30]

The diocese settled a lawsuit with a Fort Myers man in 2014 regarding Jean Joseph from Holmes Beach. The plaintiff claimed that Joseph sexually abused him in the 1990s. Joseph was ultimately removed from his posting and eventually laicized.[31]

Robert Little, a lay minister at St. Francis Xavier Church in Fort Myers, was arrested in January 2014 on felony charges of lewd or lascivious behavior on a victim between ages 12 and 16. The victim was a special needs 13 year-old whom Little sexually abused several times at a condo. In a plea agreement, Little was sentenced to three days in jail and ten years probation. The victim's family sued the diocese for $5 million in September 2014, claiming that it was negligent in its supervision of Little.[32] A second family sued the diocese that same month, saying that a ten year old boy had been assaulted.[33]

## Bishops

[edit]

### Bishops of Venice

[edit]

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

## Education

[edit]

### High schools

[edit]

* Bishop Verot High School – Fort Myers
* Cardinal Mooney High School – Sarasota
* St. John Neumann High School – Naples
* Rhodora J. Donahue Academy – Ave Maria
* Institute for Catholic Studies and Formation – Peace River[34]

### Elementary schools

[edit]

* Epiphany Cathedral School – Venice
* Incarnation School – Sarasota
* Rhodora J. Donahue Academy – Ave Maria
* St. Ann School – Naples
* St. Andrew School – Cape Coral
* St. Charles Borromeo School – Port Charlotte
* St. Catherine Catholic School – Sebring
* St. Elizabeth Seton School – Naples
* St. Francis Xavier School – Fort Myers
* St. Joseph School – Bradenton
* St. Martha School – Sarasota[34]

### Special needs schools

[edit]

St. Mary Academy at Bishop Nevins Academy – Sarasota[34]

## See also

[edit]

* Catholicism portal

* Catholic Church by country
* Catholic Church hierarchy
* List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States
* List of Jesuit sites

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Our Diocese".
2. ^ Davis, T. Frederick (1935). "History of Juan Ponce de Leon's Voyages to Florida". Florida Historical Quarterly. 14 (1): 51–66.
3. ^ a b Robert S. Weddle (2006). "Soto's Problems of Orientation". In Galloway, Patricia Kay (ed.). The Hernando de Soto Expedition: History, Historiography, and "Discovery" in the Southeast (New ed.). University of Nebraska Press. p. 223\. ISBN 978-0-8032-7122-7. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
4. ^ a b Burnett, Gene (1986). Florida's Past, volume 1. Pineapple Press. p. 156\. ISBN 1561641154. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
5. ^ "History of our Diocese". Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
6. ^ "History of the Parish 1556–1850". Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea. Archived from the original on 2014-05-29. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
7. ^ "History of our Diocese". Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
8. ^ "The Church and the Missions". St. Augustine: America's Ancient City. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
9. ^ "History | Florida State Parks". www.floridastateparks.org. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
10. ^ "Expansion of Missions and Ranches". St. Augustine: America's Ancient City. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
11. ^ "The English Menace & African Resistance". St. Augustine: America's Ancient City. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
12. ^ "Introduction". St. Augustine: America's Ancient City. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
13. ^ "Introduction". St. Augustine: America's Ancient City. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
14. ^ "New Orleans (Archdiocese) [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
15. ^ "European Exploration and Colonization – Florida Department of State". dos.myflorida.com. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
16. ^ "New Orleans (Archdiocese) [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
17. ^ "Savannah (Diocese) [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
18. ^ Michael V. Gannon, The Cross in the Sand (University of Florida, 1983) pp. 167-168.
19. ^ "Saint Augustine (Diocese) [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
20. ^ "Campus and History". Epiphany Cathedral Venice, FL. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
21. ^ "HISTORY". stannschool. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
22. ^ "Venice (Diocese) [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
23. ^ "Bishop Frank Joseph Dewane [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
24. ^ "Ex-Priest Sentenced In Sex Abuse Case, Sun-Sentinel [Fort Lauderdale FL], September 28, 1993". www.bishop-accountability.org. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
25. ^ "Diocese Settles Sex-Abuse Lawsuit The Rev. Charles Michael Cikovic Pleaded Guilty in September 1993, by Juli Cragg Hilliard, Sarasota Herald-Tribune [Florida], February 28, 1997". www.bishop-accountability.org. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
26. ^ "Siblings sue 3, including Bishop Nevins". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
27. ^ "Message to the People of Southwest Florida Regarding Allegations of Sexual Misconduct Against Three Retired Priests of the Diocese of Venice, Diocese of Venice in Florida, May 24, 2002". www.bishop-accountability.org. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
28. ^ "Former altar boy claims sex abuse". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
29. ^ "Lawsuit Filed against Sarasota Catholic Priest". www.bishop-accountability.org. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
30. ^ "Priest Accused of Exposure Emigrated from Poland, by Kim Hackett, The Herald-Tribune, June 9, 2011". www.bishop-accountability.org. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
31. ^ "Diocese Of Venice Settles Sex Abuse Case In Fort Myers". WGCU PBS & NPR for Southwest Florida. 2014-08-19. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
32. ^ "Fla. diocese sued for $5M in damages in sex abuse case". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
33. ^ "Lee Co. Sheriff Mike Scott Connected to Alleged Victim in Church Lawsuit, by Jim Spiewak, ABC 7, September 25, 2014". www.bishop-accountability.org. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
34. ^ a b c "Find a School". Diocese of Venice. Retrieved 2023-06-10.

## External links

[edit]

* Roman Catholic Diocese of Venice Official Site
* Detailed parish information

* v
* t
* e

Roman Catholic Diocese of Venice in Florida

Bishops|

John Joseph Nevins
Frank Joseph Dewane

Churches|

Cathedral
Epiphany Cathedral

Education|

Higher education
Ave Maria University

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

Grade school
St. Elizabeth Seton School, Naples

Miscellany|

Florida Catholic

* Catholicism portal

* v
* t
* e

Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Miami

* Archdiocese of Miami
* Diocese of Orlando
* Diocese of Palm Beach
* Diocese of Pensacola–Tallahassee
* Diocese of Saint Petersburg
* Diocese of St. Augustine
* Diocese of Venice in Florida

* Catholicism portal

27°06′N 82°26′W﻿ / ﻿27.100°N 82.433°W﻿ / 27.100; -82.433
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template