1500 to 1800

The first Catholic presence in the Florida Panhandle was that of Spanish explorers, including five Dominican priests, who arrived in present day Pensacola in 1559. They celebrated the first documented mass in the continental United States. However, the Spanish abandoned the settlement after it was devastated by a hurricane in 1561.^[2]

The Spanish returned to the area in the 1600s, with Franciscan missionaries setting up missions for the Native American peoples along the Apalachicola River.^[2] After the signing of the 1763 Treaty of Paris to end the Seven Years War, the British took control of the Spanish colonies in Florida, prompting many Catholic settlers to leave.^[2] However, St. Michael the Archangel Parish was established in 1781 in Pensacola.^[3] In 1783, after the end of the American Revolution, the British returned all of Florida to Spain and Catholic settlers began returning to the area.

1800 to 1975

In the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, Spain ceded all of Florida to the United States, which established the Florida Territory in 1821.^[4] 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. Four years later, Pope Pius VIII in 1829 erected the Diocese of Mobile, giving it jurisdiction over the Florida Panhandle.^[5] The first Catholic church in Tallahassee, Blessed Sacrament, was finished in 1845.^[6]

Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Savannah in 1850, including the new state of Florida minus the Panhandle region.^[7] However, seven years later, Pope Pius IX stripped Florida from the Diocese of Savannah and created a new Apostolic Vicariate of Florida. In 1870, the vicariate was converted into the Diocese of St. Augustine.^[8] Pensacola, Tallahassee and the rest of the Panhandle region would remain part of the Diocese of St. Augustine and the Diocese of Mobile for the next 105 years.

1975 to 2000

Pope Paul VI erected the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in 1975 with territories split off from the Dioceses of St. Augustine and Mobile.^[9][10] The pope named Auxiliary Bishop René Gracida of the Archdiocese of Miami as the first bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee.

In 1983, Pope John Paul II selected Gracida to be bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi. To replace him, the pope named Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Keith Symons of the Diocese of St. Petersburg as bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee. The pope named him as bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach in 1990.

The next bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee was Auxiliary Bishop John M. Smith from the Archdiocese of Newark, named by John Paul II in 1991. Four years later, in 1995, the pope appointed him as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Trenton. John Paul II replaced Smith in 1997 with Auxiliary Bishop John Ricard of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

2000 to present

Reverend Thomas Crandall was arrested in December 2001 by police acting on information from a confidential informant. The police found methamphetamine and ecstasy in his Jeep and the rectory. An investigation later determined that Crandall had stolen $100,000 from St. Rose of Lima in Milton. He was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 51 months in prison. He was permanently removed from ministry that same year. Crandall convicted in 2006 of possessing child pornography and sentenced to 10 years in prison.^[11]

Smith served in the diocese until his retirement in 2011. Pope Benedict XVI named Reverend Gregory Parkes as the fifth bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee in 2012.^[12] In 2016, Pope Francis named him bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg.

Francis named Reverend William Wack as the next bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee in 2017.^[13] During his tenure as bishop, Wack has urged Catholics in his diocese to be missionary disciples^[14] and has called for them to be more evangelical in describing their relationship with Christ saying:

"Catholics have not always been comfortable talking about a 'personal relationship with Jesus Christ.' But even though that is not our preferred language, we know innately that this is what God wants for us. We can all start by asking God to help us to grow in our relationship with Jesus in the Holy Spirit.^[15]

As of 2023, Wack is the current bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee.

Sex abuse

Three sisters in an October 1997 article in the Tallahassee Democrat publicly accused Revered David McCreanor of St. Louis Roman Catholic Church of having sexual affairs with them when they were teenagers in the 1980s. They had notified the diocese 14 months earlier, but the diocese had taken no actions on their complaints. After their announcement, McCreanor resigned his post and went away for treatment. He was never allowed to resume ministry.^[16] After the article publication, five more women filed similar accusations against him.^[17] The passing of the statute of limitations prevented authorities from prosecuting McCreanor.

In April 1998, a 53-year-old man informed a priest and Archbishop John C. Favalora of the Archdiocese of Miami that Bishop Symons, now bishop of Palm Beach, had sexually abused him when he was an altar server decades earlier. This crime took place in the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. When confronted about the allegations, Symons admitted his guilt.

The Vatican immediately asked Bishop Robert N. Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg to go to Palm Beach, Florida, to hear Symons' confession. During that session, Symons admitted that he had abused four other boys. He also said that he had confessed the abuses to a priest at the time, but the priest simply told Symons to avoid alcohol consumption and remain chaste. According to Lynch, the molestations all took place in Pensacola-Tallahassee.^[18] In June 1998, Lynch announced that John Paul II had accepted Symons' resignation as bishop of Palm Beach.^[19]

Monsignor Richard Bowles of St. Michael's Church in Pensacola was removed from ministry by the diocese in September 2003. Bowles had confessed that he had sexually molested a young boy in 1969. Relatives of the man had reported the crime in August 2003 to the diocese. In 2005, the diocese settled a lawsuit brought by Paul Tugwell who had claimed an attempted sexual assault by Bowles when he was a minor. Tugwell alleged that Bowles unsuccessfully demanded oral sex from him on a trip to Calloway Gardens at Pine Mountain, Georgia, in 1971. The diocese paid Tugwell $30,000 in compensation.^[20]

The diocese in August 2018 removed Reverend Edward Jones from two parish positions after receiving a credible accusation of sexual abuse. The complainant said she was abused by Jones at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Tallahassee during a spiritual counseling session when she was 17 in 2004.^[21] Local authorities declined to prosecute Jones, saying the investigation only revealed inappropriate conduct that was not criminal.^[22]

A Pensacola man in July 2023 claimed that he had been sexually abused by Monsignor James Flaherty between 2011 and 2012, starting when the boy was in sixth grade. The accuser said that Flaherty would pull him out of class to the rectory at St. John the Evangelist, where the alleged abuse took place.

Bishops of Pensacola–Tallahassee

1. René Henry Gracida (1975-1983), appointed Bishop of Corpus Christi
2. Joseph Keith Symons (1983-1990), appointed Bishop of Palm Beach
3. John Mortimer Smith (1991-1995), appointed Coadjutor Bishop and later Bishop of Trenton
4. John Huston Ricard, S.S.J. (1997-2011)
5. Gregory Lawrence Parkes (2012-2016), appointed Bishop of Saint Petersburg
6. William Albert Wack, C.S.C. (2017–present)

Other diocesan priest who became bishop

Martin Holley, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Washington in 2004 and later Bishop of Memphis