On Oct. 25, 1984, the Diocese of Venice in Florida was officially established with the installation of Bishop John J. Nevins as the founding bishop, and the Church of the Epiphany as the consecrated cathedral, the official church of the new diocese.
Exactly 42 years later, at San Antonio Parish in Port Charlotte, Bishop Emilio E. Biosca, O.F.M. Cap. the third bishop of the diocese, celebrated a Mass in prayer for Bishop Nevins, Bishop Frank J. Dewane, the second bishop of the diocese who passed away Oct. 7, and for all the priests, religious, deacons and lay people who helped establish and build up the diocese since its founding.
“Today in a special way we pray for Bishop Dewane and also for Bishop Nevins – now they are together in the bishops’ crypt of (Epiphany) Cathedral – and we also gives thanks to God for this diocese, its history and for all those who have gone before us, remembering them with love, and grateful hearts,” Bishop Emilio said.
Bishop Emilio said the Mass, from its very beginning, included the prayer for the dead, because the Mass makes Christ’s redemptive sacrifice on Calvary present again. Offering a Mass for the repose of the soul applies Christ’s grace directly to the departed.
History of the Diocese
The Diocese of Venice was created from parts of the Archdiocese of Miami (Glades, Hendry, Lee and Collier counties), Diocese of Orlando (Highlands County), and the Diocese of St. Petersburg (Manatee, DeSoto, Sarasota, Hardee, and Charlotte counties), by papal decree in an announcement on behalf of St. John Peul II on July 17, 1984, at that time naming then Auxiliary Bishop John J. Nevins as the founding bishop.
The new diocese encompassed 9,035 square miles of Southwest Florida, approximately 140 miles in length (north to south) and an average of 70 miles in width (east to west). At the time it was created, the Diocese of Venice had a general population of 855,520 and a Catholic population of 115,359. The Diocese of Venice, at its inception, included 10 counties, 39 parishes, and 11 Catholic schools. The co-patrons of the diocese are St. Mark the Evangelist in symbolic deference to the patriarchal Church of Venice, Italy, and Mary, Our Lady of Mercy, to invoke protection for the diocese and was inspired by the motto of Bishop Nevins, “To Serve with Mercy.”
Bishop Dewane was appointed coadjutor bishop of the diocese on April 25, 2006, and was ordained to the episcopacy July 25, 2006. He assumed the role as second bishop of the Diocese of Venice upon Bishop Nevins reaching the age of 75, Jan. 19, 2007. By 2007, the diocese included 55 parishes, and six missions for 233,000 Catholics.
The appointment of Bishop Emilio as the third bishop of the diocese was announced May 13, 2026. The episcopal ordination and installation of Bishop Emilio took place July 11, 2026, at St. John XXIII Parish, Fort Myers, relocated while Epiphany Cathedral is undergoing a renovation. There are more than 260,000 Catholics currently living in the Diocese of Venice, which includes 62 parishes, 10 missions, and 15 Catholic schools, and a total population of 2.5 million.
