About Us

The Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee was established on November 6, 1975. It was formed out of the ten counties west of the Apalachicola River that had formerly been a part of Diocese of Mobile, prior to being incorporated into the Diocese of St. Augustine in 1968, and eight counties east
of the river that had been a part of the
St. Augustine Diocese from its establishment in 1870.

The resulting 18 county diocese, covering 14,044 square miles, currently has a Catholic population of 66,145, or approximately 5% of the total population of the area. The Catholic population is most numerous in the western (Pensacola) section of the diocese where 40% of the total population lives. The remaining 60% are nearly equally divided in the areas of Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, and Tallahassee. There are seven rural counties along the 200-mile stretch of highway from the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Pensacola to the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas Moore in Tallahassee.

There are forty-nine parishes and ten missions served by sixty-four priests and sixty deacons. There is a resident pastor in every county except three (Holmes, Jefferson, and Liberty). Of the seven dioceses now in Florida, the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee is the most extensive in size and yet the least populated.

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