Frank J. Dewane

Frank Joseph Dewane was born on March 9, 1950, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the third of four children of Ben and Eleanor Dewane, devout Irish Catholics who owned and operated a dairy farm. The family farm had cows, chickens, an occasional pig, dogs and cats, and St. James Parish in Cooperstown was the centre of community life. He remembered going to the stations of the cross in Lent, the rosary in May and October, the May crowning and the big procession for the Feast of St. Isidore, patron of farmers. "This was just life; that was it," he said.

He attended Denmark High School in Denmark, Wisconsin, where he played lineman on the football team, and spent summers working at an appliance factory to pay for college. He credited the farm with giving him "a tremendous appreciation for life and the cycles of life," a lesson he said carried into his later work for justice and peace.

Dewane studied at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh from 1968 to 1972 and earned a bachelor's degree. A study tour of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in 1971 sparked a lasting interest in Russia, and he went on to earn a Master of International Administration at American University in Washington, D.C. (1973 to 1975).

After deciding to become a priest, he studied philosophy at the University of Notre Dame (1983 to 1984), then moved to Rome in 1984 to attend the Pontifical North American College. He studied theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and completed advanced studies in canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum).

After graduate school Dewane found work in Moscow, first with a small consulting firm and later with NBC, which was preparing its coverage of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He described it as "a fantastic period in my life," meeting people with a different perspective who, he discovered, "were just like we were and they wanted the best for their children." The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Olympic boycott changed the scope of his job.

At about 30 he moved to New York City to work for a subsidiary of PepsiCo while he discerned a vocation. Therese Mauch, a sales coordinator who worked for him in 1982, said he "set high standards for himself and high standards for everybody else" and was not surprised when he left to become a priest. It took him nearly three years to "decide to decide."

Dewane was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Green Bay on July 16, 1988, at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral by then Bishop Adam Maida. He served as assistant pastor at Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Green Bay, which had a school and a home for elderly residents, and assisted at the diocesan tribunal.

In 1991 Bishop Robert Banks told him he had been requested for the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York. In 1995 he moved to Rome as an official of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, and from 2001 to 2006 he was undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. As a delegate of the Holy See he attended the UN Conference on Environment and Development, the conferences on population, women, social development and human settlements, the diplomatic conference that created the International Criminal Court, the World Conference against Racism, the Conference on Financing for Development, World Water Forums, and the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization. He was also part of a church delegation pressing G8 leaders to honour their commitments to Africa.

Pope Benedict XVI named Monsignor Dewane coadjutor bishop of Venice in Florida on April 25, 2006. He was ordained a bishop at Epiphany Cathedral in Venice on July 25, 2006, by Bishop John J. Nevins with Archbishops John Favalora and Diarmuid Martin as co-consecrators, and chose the motto Iustitia Pax Gaudium (Justice, Peace, Joy), from Romans 14:17. When Nevins retired on January 19, 2007, Dewane became the second bishop of the diocese.

The diocese covers 10 counties and about 9,000 square miles of Southwest Florida. Early in his tenure he celebrated Masses in area prisons for the first time, strengthened the Safe Environment programme, and introduced green building guidelines. Catholic Charities expanded farmworker housing at Casa San Juan Bosco in Arcadia and the North Port Family Haven homeless programme. He consecrated the diocese to St. Joseph during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and when Hurricane Ian struck in September 2022 he checked that every priest was safe, toured damaged parishes and supported Catholic Charities relief that served more than 100,000 people.

Nationally he chaired the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development (2016 to 2019), served as episcopal liaison to Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, sat on the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee against Racism, and served as vice-chairman of the board of governors of the Pontifical North American College and on the boards of Ave Maria University, Ave Maria School of Law and two Florida seminaries.

Dewane's motto, Justice, Peace, Joy, reflected his years at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He spoke often about the dignity of work, the rights of migrants and farmworkers, care for the elderly and attention to prisoners, "a population that can get forgotten." As USCCB committee chairman he wrote Labor Day statements on solidarity, unions and the dangers of wage stagnation, and in 2019 urged the U.S. Justice Department to abandon plans to resume federal executions, citing Pope Francis and the Catechism.

He was also a firm opponent of abortion and euthanasia. He addressed religious freedom rallies in Naples and Sarasota in 2012 and recorded a public message on Florida's Amendment 4 in 2024. Describing his Vatican work, he said that "life's important" and that "it's the Lord who determines these. We don't have that right."

Dewane said that, like many priests, he had thought about marriage during his discernment, but that "you choose and you move on in your life." He loved gardening, and turned the empty terrace outside his Rome apartment into something "like a jungle." "It's my therapy," he said. "You plant something, give it some water and air and it grows." He had serious hip problems around 2013. In retirement he planned to spend more time in prayer, study and travel, and to stay in Southwest Florida.

In January 2014 ten priests of the diocese, all pastors or administrators, sent a letter to the papal nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, accusing Dewane of ignoring canon law on finance and consultation and of ruling by "intimidation, the use of fear, shaming, bullying." The letter was first reported by NBC2 in Fort Myers and then by the National Catholic Reporter. Dewane called the allegations "malicious" and "unfounded," and the chair of the diocesan finance council publicly disputed the financial claims.

In April 2019, after a two-year investigation by the Congregation for the Clergy found that Father Christopher Senk, former pastor of St. Isabel Parish on Sanibel, had improperly accepted gifts from parishioner Marion McIntyre, Dewane ordered Senk to spend a year in penance and prayer.

Dewane led the Diocese of Venice for nearly 20 years, through rapid growth, hurricanes and a pandemic. His successor, Bishop Emilio Biosca Agüero, thanked him for having "faithfully shepherded this local Church for 20 years," adding that "his pastoral charity, generous heart, and warm welcome have already been a great gift to me." He is remembered for bringing a Vatican diplomat's global outlook to a Florida diocese and for his focus on the poor, migrants and farmworkers.

The Diocese of Venice in Florida TV channel recorded a two-part interview, A Look Back with Bishop Dewane, about his 20 years as shepherd in 2026. Other recordings include his speeches at the 2012 Naples and Sarasota religious freedom rallies, a 2024 message on Amendment 4, a NetTV Catholic episode of The Chair, and news coverage by WINK News of his retirement in May 2026.

The Diocese of Venice confirmed on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, that Bishop Emeritus Frank J. Dewane had died, and said more information would be released soon. He was 76. The exact date, time, place and cause of death were not immediately made public. Funeral arrangements had not been announced at the time this page was written.