| Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church | |
| Classification | Catholic |
|---|---|
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Geographical areas | Brazil |
| Founder | Carlos Duarte Costa |
| Origin | 1945 |
| Separated from | Roman Catholic Church |
| Members | 800,000-900,000 |
The Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church (Portuguese: Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira; ICAB) is an independent Catholic church established in 1945 by Brazilian bishop Dom Carlos Duarte Costa, a former Roman Catholic Bishop of Botucatu.
The ICAB has 58 dioceses and claims five million members in 17 countries.[1] Its past head was Patriarch Dom Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez, Worldwide Council of Catholic Apostolic Churches (WCCAC), a loose communion of churches in 14 countries.
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The ICAB accepts the Nicene, Athanasian, and Apostles' creeds and observes seven sacraments (baptism, Eucharist, confirmation, penance, unction, ordination, and matrimony).[2] ICAB practices open communion for all Christians who acknowledge the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The church acknowledges divorce as a reality of life and permitted in Holy Scripture, and will marry divorced persons after the Ecclesiastical Process of Anulment and baptize the children of divorced or single parents or someone else.[3]
ICAB teaches that birth control is acceptable in certain circumstances (such as for disease prevention). It opposes abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, and any other taking of human life.[3] The church has three administrative branches, in line with the conception of a nation state: executive (Episcopal Council), legislative (National Council), and judicial (Superior Ecclesiastical Court).[4] There are currently 58 bishops and 47 dioceses within Brazil.[3]
Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa was an outspoken critic of the regime of Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas (1930–1945) and of the Vatican's perceived cozy relationship with fascist regimes.[5] He also publicly criticized the doctrine of papal infallibility and Roman Catholic views on divorce and clerical celibacy. Largely as a result of his outspoken views, he was moved from his post as Bishop of Botucatu in 1937 and was redesignated as the Titular Bishop of Maura (an extinct diocese of North Africa). Duarte Costa continued to criticize the government and the Roman Catholic Church, advocating policies that were regarded by the authorities as Communist. In 1944 the Brazilian government imprisoned him, but later freed him under political pressure by the United States and Great Britain.[5]
In May 1945 Dom Carlos gave newspaper interviews accusing Brazil's papal nunciate of Nazi-Fascist spying, and accused Rome of having aided and abetted Hitler. In addition, he announced plans to set up his own Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, in which priests would be permitted to marry (and hold regular jobs in the lay world), confessions and rosaries would be abolished, and bishops would be elected by popular vote.
In response to Costa's continued insubordination, the Vatican finally laid against him penalty from a Diocesan Bishop to a Titular Bishop and accepted his resignation to the Roman Church in 1937. Several years later, he formed the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church (ICAB) by joining with Father (later Bishop) Salamao Ferraz who already headed a church which was originally founded in 1913.[6] He then declared in 1945: "The Brazilian Catholic Church which is a religious society, established for the propagation of the Christianity in all the national territory, which is separated from the Roman Apostolic Church because of the errors that it has been committing since the moment when it left the catacombs, exchanging the beauty of the teachings of Christ — simplicity, humility, poverty, love of neighbor — for a preeminently mercantilistic institution, where pomp reigns, doing damage to true Christianity, which is found in the humble, the laborers, the legitimate representatives of Jesus of Nazareth."[2]
In 1949 the Brazilian government temporarily suppressed all public worship by ICAB, maintaining that the similarity of its liturgy and vestments to those of the Roman Catholic Church would result in confusion and were tantamount to deception of the public.[7] However, a few months later the churches were permitted to reopen, provided that their liturgy would not duplicate the Roman Catholic liturgy, and their clergy would wear gray clerical attire in contrast to the black clothing worn by Catholic clergy.
Dom Carlos set about to implement a number of reforms in ICAB of what he saw as problems in the Roman Catholic Church. Clerical celibacy was abolished. Rules for the reconciliation of divorced persons were implemented. The liturgy was translated into the vernacular, and in emulation of a short-lived experiment in France, clergy were expected to live and work amongst the people, and support themselves and their ministries, by holding secular employment. Within a short time ICAB began to be identified as “The Church of the Poor”.[8]
Shortly after founding the church Dom Carlos Duarte Costa consecrated two more bishops, Salomão Barbosa Ferraz (August 15, 1945), and the Venezuelan Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez (May 3, 1948) Dom, Salamao Ferraz acted as co consecrator for Dom. Castillo Mendez. These three bishops went on to establish similar autonomous Catholic Apostolic National Churches in several other Latin American countries. Dom Carlos personally served as consecrator or co-consecrator of eleven additional bishops, each of whom took a leadership role in either the Brazilian church or one of the other national churches.[9]
In 1958 Bishop Ferraz left ICAB to rejoin the Catholic Church; his consecration was simply accepted by the Catholic Church as valid. Shortly thereafter, in 1961, Dom Carlos Duarte Costa died, and the ICAB underwent several years of tumult as dissensions, schisms, and multiple claimants to the patriarchal throne threw the church into disarray.[3] José Aires da Cruz briefly succeeded Duarte Costa as primate in 1961, and by 1964 Antidio Jose Vargas of Santa Catarina was primate, consecrating the Italian Luigi Mascolo as Bishop of Rio de Janeiro.[10]
Some sources indicate that Bishop Luis Castillo Méndez assumed leadership of ICAB upon Duarte Costa's death in 1961, but this seems unlikely based on contemporary accounts such as Anson's.[10] What is clear is that in 1982 Castillo Méndez was elected president of the Episcopal Council, and was designated Patriarch of ICAB in 1988 and Patriarch of ICAN (the international communion) in 1990.[11] not forgetting that Patriarch Mendez was in private talks with the late Pope John Paul II in returning the Brazilian Church back to Rome. However the Council of Bishops had voted against rejoining the Roman Catholic Church. Dom Luis served as Patriarch until his death.
The ICAB holds that apostolic succession is maintained through the consecration of its bishops in unbroken personal succession back to the apostles. All ICAB bishops trace their line of succession back to Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa, who was consecrated by the Roman Catholic Church. Every consecration strictly follows the Roman Pontifical.
The ICAB cites the case of Salomão Barbosa Ferraz as evidence that its apostolic succession is valid, even by Roman Catholic standards. Just over a month after the church's foundation, on August 15, 1945, Bishop Duarte Costa presided as the principal celebrant at the episcopal consecration of Salomão Barbosa Ferraz. Thirteen years later (in 1958 under Pope John XXIII) Ferraz reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church and was fully recognized as a bishop, even though he was married at the time.[9] Ferraz was not ordained or consecrated again, even conditionally; however he was not appointed to a diocese immediately. He did pastoral work in the Archdiocese of São Paulo until May 12, 1963, when he was appointed titular bishop of Eleutherna by Pope John XXIII.[12] He attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, and Pope Paul VI appointed him to serve on one of Vatican II's working commissions. Upon his death in 1969, Bishop Ferraz was buried with full honors accorded a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Not forgetting also that after Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa's resignation to Pope Pius XI was accepted in 1937 and he was appointed as Titular Bishop of Maurensi. His Principal Consecrator and friend Roman Catholic Cardinal. His Eminence Cardinal Silveria Leme do Cintra did issue a letter and permission to then Titular Bishop of Maurensi to assist in a consecration of a Roman Catholic Bishop Eliseo Coreoli in 1940. Some 3 years after he resigned to the Roman See which then relinguished control over then Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa.
Bishops Costa, Ferraz, and Méndez consecrated or assisted in the consecrations of dozens of bishops in various countries between the 1940s and 1990s. Some bishops in the Costa line maintained formal ties with the Brazilian mother church, but the majority appear to have gone their separate ways to found or participate in independent Catholic bodies without ties to Brazil. Churches in full communion with ICAB are members of the Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic National Churches (WCCAC). There has been a fluctuating number of partner churches in the WCCAC communion, and a current list of official WCCAC members is not available.
A world council of the communion was held in Brazil in 2005. At a further council in the United State in June 2009, in Fort Worth, Texas, all bishops in apostolic succession were invited to attend and apply for membership. Only current members are able to vote on WCCAC business.