Background 1530 to 1800 In 1539, Spanish explorer
Hernando De Soto, hoping to find gold in Florida, landed near present-day
Port Charlotte or
San Carlos Bay. 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. 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. 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. After the
American Revolution, Spain regained control of Florida in 1784. 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.
1800 to 1880 In the
Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, Spain ceded all of Florida to the United States, which established the
Florida Territory in 1821. In 1825,
Pope Leo XII erected the Vicariate of Alabama and Florida, which included all of Florida, based in
Mobile, Alabama. which in 1870 was elevated into the Diocese of St. Augustine. The Tampa Bay region would remain part of this diocese for the next 98 years. The first Catholic parish in Tampa,
St. Louis, was founded in 1859.
1880 to 1900 The
Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary founded the
Academy of the Holy Names, a girls school in Tampa, in 1881. It was the first Catholic school on the Florida Gulf Coast. Arizona jurist
Edmund F. Dunne established the Catholic colony of
San Antonio in
Pasco County in the early 1880s. The community originally practising Catholics as residents; most of them were Irish and German immigrants. A contingent of
Benedictine monks arrived in
San Antonio, Florida, in 1886 initially to serve German immigrants. A
yellow fever epidemic in Tampa in 1888 killed three of the priests in the area. Bishop
John Moore then invited the Society of Jesus in New Orleans to assume control of the parishes in southern and central Florida. In succeeding years, as the area grew in population. the Jesuits established more parishes and schools.
1900 to 1968 Saint Mary, Our Lady of Grace, founded in 1908, was the first Catholic parish in St. Petersburg. The first Catholic church in
Clearwater, St. Cecilia, was dedicated in 1924.After the end of
World War II in 1945, Bishop
Joseph P. Hurley of St. Augustine started a massive program of purchasing property throughout Florida to develop new parishes for the increasing Catholic population. He also recruited many priests from the northern states and Ireland to serve in Florida. He founded over 40% of the parishes within the present Diocese of St. Petersburg.Nativity Parish, the first in
Brandon, was erected in 1960.
Diocese of St. Petersburg 1968 to 1980 On June 17, 1968,
Pope Paul VI erected the Diocese of St. Petersburg with territory taken from St. Augustine and the
Diocese of Miami. The new diocese included most of the Florida Gulf Coast. He appointed Auxiliary Bishop
Charles B. McLaughlin of the
Diocese of Raleigh as the first bishop of St. Petersburg. The pope designated the
Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle in St. Petersburg as its seat. John Paul II erected the
Diocese of Venice in Florida in 1983, taking most of its territory from the Diocese of St. Petersburg. Larkin created new offices for African-American and Hispanic Catholics, along with an office for Catholics with disabilities. Larkin also worked on services for the needy and for those with
HIV/AIDS, and was a strong advocate for
ecumenicism. Larkin retired in 1988. John Paul II named Bishop
John Favalora of the
Diocese of Alexandria in Louisiana as the next bishop of St. Petersburg in 1989. He reorganized diocesan administrative functions and consolidated outreach programs. He started WLMS 88.3 FM to serve the northern area of the diocese. In 1993, Favarola declared a "A Year of Favor From The Lord" to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the erection of the diocese. In 1994, Favalora became archbishop of Miami. In the summer of 1998, Lynch inaugurated the Renew 2000 program to educated and motivate Catholic laity in the diocese. Later that year, he gave support to the Lay Pastoral Ministry Institute, a formal training program for the laity. Lynch also started a program to forgive the debt of parishes. After Lynch retired in 2016,
Pope Francis that same year appointed Bishop
Gregory Parkes of the
Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee as his replacement. Reverend Robert L. Schaeufele was arrested in
Michigan in June 2002 on capital
sexual battery charges from
Pinellas County in Florida. Two men had accused him of giving them
enemas when they were 11 years old at Sacred Heart Church in
Pinellas Park from 1983 to 1985. Schaeufele pleaded guilty in June 2003 to attempted capital sexual battery and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Four of Schaeufele's victims sued the diocese in November 2003, claiming that it allowed him access to young children despite previous complaints about his behavior. By December 2003, seven lawsuits had been filed against the diocese regarding Schaeufele. In April 2004, the diocese reached a settlement with 12 victims of Shaeufele for $1.1 million. Texas authorities arrested Reverend Gerry Appleby in March 2003 on a warrant from
Pinellas County in Florida. Two men had accused him of sexually abusing them when they were minors at St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Parish in
Tarpon Springs during 1978 or 1979. Appleby left Florida for Texas in 1979. A man had reported abuse by Appleby to the diocese in 1994; Appleby was
laicized by the Vatican in 1995. In May 2004, Appleby pleaded guilty to attempted capital sexual battery and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 2011, Lynch published a letter detailing how the diocese had spent $4.7 million since 1990 to settle sexual misconduct cases. In October 2018, Mark Cattell, a
magistrate in Virginia, sued the diocese, claiming that he had been sexually assaulted by Reverend Robert D. Huneke from Christ the King Parish in Tampa. Cattell said that Hunke forced him to perform oral sex on him in 1981 when he was nine-years-old. • As part of the lawsuit, Cattell showed letters from John Salveson to the
Diocese of Rockville Centre, Huneke's previous posting in New York, accusing him of sexual assault. • Another letter from Hunke to Rockville contained an admission of misconduct there. Salveston in 1980 wrote to Bishop Larkin, warning him about Huneke. Despite Salveson's complaints, the diocese did not remove Huneke from ministry in St. Petersburg until 1982. Huneke then returned to New York, where he faced more sexual abuse accusations. He left the priesthood in 1989. As of May 2020, the diocese lists nine priests and five lay workers as having credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. The list does not include religious priests, brothers or nuns. ==Bishops==