1500 to 1565

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]

Before the expedition could build a settlement, the Calusa attacked them, wounding de León. The Spanish abandoned their effort and returned to Puerto Rico, where de León died of his wound that same year.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[4] 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.

Luis de Cancer arrived by sea with several Dominican priests in present day Bradenton in 1549. Encountering a seemingly peaceful party of Tocobaga clan members, the Spanish decided to travel on to Tampa to meet the tribe. Several of the priests went overland with the Tocobaga while Cáncer and the rest of the party sailed to meet them.^[5] Arriving at Tampa Bay, de Cáncer learned that the two priests in the overland group had been murdered by the Tocobaga. De Cáncer himself was later murdered by the Tocobaga.^[5]

1565 to 1800

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.^[6]

1819 to 1965

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.^[7] 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.^[8] 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 Vatican converted the vicariate into the Diocese of St. Augustine, which included the Venice area.^[9] This area would remain part of several Florida dioceses for the next 114 years.

Post civil war

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)
• St. Catherine in Sebring (1918)

Epiphany Parish, the first in Venice, was established as a mission in 1935.^[10] St. Ann's, the first Catholic church in Naples, opened in 1950.^[11]

Erection of the diocese

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.^[12]

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 de 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.^[13]

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

Sex abuse

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.^[14] The girl's family sued the diocese in February 1994; the diocese settled the lawsuit three years later.^[15]

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 an sexual relationship with their mother, Romero allegedly sexually abused the children in Hobe Sound.^[16] After receiving allegations against Romero in May 2002, Nevins had suspended him from ministry.^[17] 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.^[18] 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.^[19]

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.^[20]

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.^[21]

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 sentence 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.^[22] A second family sued the diocese that same month, saying that a ten year old boy had been assaulted.^[23]

Bishops of Venice

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

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
• Institute for Catholic Studies and Formation – Peace River^[24]

Elementary schools

• 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^[24]

Special needs schools

St. Mary Academy at Bishop Nevins Academy – Sarasota^[24]