The Diocese of Orlando encompasses about 9,611 square miles (24,890 km2), spanning the Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Marion, Lake, Volusia, Brevard, Polk, and Sumter counties.

It has two minor basilicas, Mary, Queen of the Universe Shrine, which ministers to Catholic tourists, and St. Paul's in Daytona Beach.

[5] However, raids by British settlers and their Creek Native American allies from the Carolinas eventually shut down the missions.

[6] 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.

In 1976, St. Charles Borromeo Church in the College Park section of Orlando, the original cathedral, was destroyed by fire.

The diocese also expanded ministries to migrants and minorities, founded a scholarship program for African American students, and built apartment buildings for the elderly.

Bishop Grady Villas, which opened in 2004, was constructed as a residential community in Orlando for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

[27] The Spanish language radio station, Buena Nueva FM, and a newspaper, El Clarin, were also started.

[30] In 2010, the diocese began both a $150 million capital campaign and an extensive renovation of St. James Cathedral in Orlando.

[32] Reverend Richard Walsh, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Winter Park, served as diocesan administrator, until Auxiliary Bishop John Noonan of Miami was appointed by the pope that same year.

[33] In June 2017, Noonan attended a memorial service at St. James Cathedral for victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

[34] In February 1995, a man sued the Diocese of Orlando, saying that he had been sexually abused as a youth by former priest Thomas Pagni.

The plaintiff claimed that Pagni, then a mental health counselor in Brevard County, sexually assaulted him for several months in 1992.

The plaintiff said that the diocese has concealed Pagni's history of sexual abuse as a priest and had paid for his college courses to enter the counseling field.

[38] Reverend Wladyslaw Gorak (also known as Walter Fisher) of the Church of the Resurrection in South Lakeland was arrested in October 2004 after breaking down the door at the residence of a female acquaintance and sexually assaulting her.

[39] In November 1985, the families of four boys sued the diocese, claiming sexual abuse by Reverend William Authenrieth at St. Mary's Church in Rockledge.

[43] After receiving a complaint in 1978 from a parishioner that Authenrieth had molested his son, the diocese moved the priest to St. Mary's in Rockledge.

[44] In August 2018, Noonan removed Reverend David Gillis, parochial administrator of the Our Savior Parish in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

[50] A total of 1,342 couples in the Diocese of Orlando participated in the marriage program under the Family Life Office in 2007.

[50] An Apostleship of the Sea ministry is located at the Stella Maris Center at Port Canaveral for the benefit of sailors.

[63] They include: Spanish-language radio station Buena Nueva FM 104.1 subcarrier reached eight counties of the nine comprising the diocese and also broadcast on the Internet before going silent in 2017.