Bishop Frank J. Dewane has stressed the importance of prison outreach since his 2006 appointment as Episcopal leader of the Diocese of Venice, making a point to celebrate Mass at many prisons and jails each year while also conferring the Sacraments on numerous inmates.
Therefore, it was distressing for Bishop Dewane to learn that the prison outreach effort came to a halt when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) to close chapels and stop all programming and prohibited visitors. This extended to county jails and impacted some 150 volunteers, including 25 priests and 10 deacons, providing a variety of services, such as Bible study, religious education and assistance with receiving the Sacraments such as Baptism, First Holy Communion and Confirmation.
This new reality motivated Diocese of Venice Prison Outreach volunteer and program coordinators Bob Hiniker and Joe Mallof to find a practical solution in a complicated and challenging situation. With the assistance and support of Bishop Dewane, Hiniker and Mallof developed a multi-pronged solution targeting the inmates in the state prisons. This effort was made with the encouragement and support of Father Severyn Kovalyshin, Region 3 Chaplain, and the State Chaplain Johnny Frambo.
The first part of the solution included, thanks in part to private assistance, donating televisions to the state prisons, Mallof explained.
“In return for donating the TVs, we were able to leverage this to get a guarantee from prison leadership that the TVs would be used on Sunday to show the Catholic Mass from the Diocese of Venice, and for any other religious programming at that time,” Mallof said. “The TVs would be another source of entertainment for inmates confined to their dorms at other times to keep them occupied. This was a good solution for the chaplains to get religious content to the inmates despite the chapel closures and other restrictions. And this was a huge concession by prison management, to mandate religious programming in the dorms on Sunday morning.”
The large TV donation also allowed the chaplains to leverage this with their prison management superiors, to get religious content put on JPAY, a program which provides each state inmate with a tablet with controlled access for content such as emails, video visitation and other services.
“This would be for all inmates state-wide, not just in the three prisons with the TVs,” Mallof explained. “I believe this is the first-time religious content other than the St. James Bible is on JPAY.”
The state chaplains chose to work with the Diocese of Venice because of the TV donation, and the great respect and trust they have in the Diocesan Prison Outreach program. This will provide the inmates additional religious content at a time when the chapel and its programs, including all ministry, were suspended.
That content will include the Mass celebrated by Bishop Dewane for the prisoners for the month of June, which are recorded in advance at Santa Maria Chapel at Epiphany Cathedral in Venice. This is needed because a month of recorded Masses are uploaded at one time, Hiniker said.
“This allows those who did not have an opportunity to watch on TV on a particular Sunday, or those who want to watch again, the chance to watch at their leisure,” Hiniker said.
Additional religious educational material is also being prepared to be loaded onto the tablets. This material will be available in English and Spanish and will be periodically updated. This part of the outreach is made possible through Anne Chzran, Diocesan Director of Religious Education, and Father Claudio Stewart, Diocesan Director of Hispanic Outreach.
The cataclysmic and sudden stoppage of spiritual efforts at the prisons, generated new opportunities as the Prison Outreach in the Diocese of Venice was correctly positioned to capitalize on, Mallof said.
“It is truly a win-win for the inmates, the chaplains, and our Diocese,” he said. “The relationship we have continues to build with the chaplains, by strengthening their position within the FDOC, and will bear additional future fruits in ways yet to be seen.”
If you are interested in learning more about the Diocesan Prison Outreach, please contact Bob Hiniker at hinbob5@hotmail.com or Joe Mallof at mallofjt@comcast.net.
Please check back with the Florida Catholic to learn more about the religious education aspect of the ongoing Prison Outreach effort.
Out of concern for the safety of all involved, our Pastors have been asked to follow established directives and guidelines. These limit the size of the congregation to 25% of occupancy, maintain social distancing guidance, and ask the Faithful’s cooperation to wear facemasks and bring with them hand sanitizer for their use. The Faithful are also asked to receive communion in the hand. These are extraordinary times and I ask for your patience and good will as Parishes reopen for public celebrations. Further, schedules may need to be adjusted and some Priests or liturgical ministers may not be able to participate publicly because of age or health conditions.
Bishop Frank J. Dewane, in what is becoming a regular routine, visited this Catholic Charities site on May 8, 2020, to show his support and learn from the staff what the last few weeks have been like and if they were getting enough support.
Bishop Dewane first helped stack boxes of food provided by the Harry Chapin Food Bank while others brought out bagged food, grapefruits, apples and water. When the first vehicle came through the line, the bishop opted to load the half-cases of bottled water – minimum two per vehicle and more when the person was collecting food for multiple families. Bags were filled with maeseca (corn flour), rice, beans, oil and canned meats and vegetables.
Those numbers represent a tremendous increase in outreach when compared to an average year when Catholic Charities serves some 90,000 families and individuals through 37 different programs.
Catholic Charities Diocese of Venice Inc. is in urgent need of your financial support during its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To help, please visit 
The Bishop added that he understood and appreciated the extra effort required by the priests and Parishes to facilitate the opening, but “because the Faithful are hungry for a return to the Church and for prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, this desire is worthy of the extra effort.” It is expected this first phase will allow for a growing reassurance by the Faithful that it will be safe to return for Mass once it is possible to do so.
Naturally concerned about the health and well-being of all, Bishop Dewane said his focus is also on the spiritual health of the Faithful. “I am confident that these visits will yield abundant spiritual fruit in personal holiness and the communion of our Parishes. This will eventually lead to being able to offer the access to all of the life-giving Sacraments in the near future.”
Visitors for private prayer at Epiphany Cathedral in Venice are greeted in the narthex and shown a seating chart for the Church. The faithful selects the spot from where they wish to pray and given a number that corresponds to that spot. A volunteer escort is provided as a guide. Upon leaving the Church, through a different door, the faithful are asked to drop their number off in a basket. The Parish cleaning staff later uses those numbers as guidance for deeper cleaning. This system works well as only between 20 and 50 people are coming for prayer throughout each day.
Surrounded by giant live oaks with a cool lake at its center, the Retreat Center, known by most as OLPH, offers a place full of God’s peace and beauty which encourages guests to develop a deeper relationship with the Lord, improve prayer life, and perhaps meet a new friend with whom to walk the spiritual journey of life.
Father Mallen founded OLPH in 1995 at the direction of then-Bishop John J. Nevins. With the assistance of Sister Carmella DeCosty, Sister of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, Father Mallen developed an overgrown piece of land into a refuge.
While the shrine is not finished yet: the plans include an area for votive candles that will be enclosed to comply with fire regulations and sidewalks which will lead to the steps of the shrine.
As Superintendent, Father Belmonte will be responsible for the Department of Education in the Diocese of Venice in Florida which consists of 15 schools; 4,777 students; the Office of Religious Education which supports the 61 parishes and 13,573 children and adults; as well as The Institute for Catholic Studies and Formation.
Since mid-March, Anne Chrzan, Diocesan Director of Religious Education, has been leading these virtual meetings on Zoom (online video conferencing), in the wake of the indefinite suspension of in-room Religious Education classes within the Diocese.
A Bible Study will be offered online through the Diocese of Venice Facebook Live on Tuesdays May 12 through July 28 using the program “Genesis to Jesus” from the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. Each session will begin at 2:00 p.m. Join by going to 
