Rómulo Antonio Braschi (born December 25, 1941) is an Argentine Independent Catholic bishop, not in communion with the Vatican.
Born in Buenos Aires, and ordained a Roman Catholic priest in August 1966, he was associated with members of the worker-priest movement in Argentina and the Movimiento de Sacerdotes para el Tercer Mundo (Movement of Priests for the Third World). He was arrested and questioned for these activities during the "Dirty War". Disillusioned by what he perceived as the silence and tacit condemnation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the face of progressive church movements, he distanced himself from the Roman church while resolving not to abandon his priestly ministry.
Contents |
In 1975 he set up an Independent Catholic church in Buenos Aires Province. In 1978 this became the Catholic Apostolic Charismatic Church of “Jesus the King”, now present in several European and Latin American countries. He was ordained as a bishop in Munich by Roberto Garrido Padin, a bishop of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, and Hilarios Karl-Heinz Ungerer, a German bishop of the Free Catholic Church.
Bishop Rómulo Antonio Braschi gained the attention of the worldwide press in 2002 when he took part in the attempted ordinations of seven Roman Catholic women, who became known as the Danube Seven. The ordinations led to the women's excommunication by the Vatican. Braschi has since repeatedly expressed regret over his involvement in the ordinations of the Danube Seven, while continuing to promote the cause for the ordination of women.[1]