Carlos Duarte Costa

St. Carlos of Brazil
Bishop
Born	(1888-07-21)July 21, 1888 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Died	March 26, 1961(1961-03-26) (aged 72) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Venerated in	Independent Catholics (including the WCCAC) and Opus Apostolorum
Canonized	July 4, 1970 by Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church
Feast	July 21 (not celebrated liturgically)
Patronage	Conscience, Freedom, Independent Catholicism

Carlos Duarte Costa (July 21, 1888 – March 26, 1961) was the founder and first patriarch of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church and its international extension, the Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic National Churches. A former Roman Catholic bishop,^[1] he was excommunicated by Pope Pius XII for doctrinal and canonical issues (such as clerical celibacy). Duarte Costa has been canonized as "St. Carlos of Brazil" by the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church. ICAB is not Roman Catholic and does not want to be Roman Catholic. ICAB does not acknowledge Roman Catholic orders as valid after 1968 and believes that they no longer have the Catholic understanding of ordination, since the ordination rites have changed so dramatically.

Early life and ministry

Carlos Duarte Costa was born in Rio de Janeiro on July 21, 1888, at the residence of his uncle (later a bishop) Eduardo Duarte de Silva. The son of João Matta Francisco Costa and Maria Carlota Duarte da Silva Costa, he received a devout Catholic upbringing. At age nine he received his first communion in the cathedral of Uberaba from the hands of his uncle (now a bishop) Dom Eduardo Duarte da Silva. That same year he was taken by his uncle to Rome to study at the Pontificio Collegio Pio Latino Americano, a Jesuit minor seminary. In 1905 he returned to Brazil for health reasons and entered an Augustinian seminary in Uberaba, where he completed his philosophical and theological studies.^[2]

After ordination as a deacon, Duarte Costa served under his uncle, Dom Eduardo de Silva, in the cathedral church of Uberaba. On May 4, 1911, Duarte Costa was ordained to the priesthood at the cathedral. He then returned to Rome to further his education and obtained a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. After returning to Brazil, he worked once again with his uncle, Dom Eduardo Duarte da Silve, in Uberaba, as secretary of the diocese. Duarte Costa was awarded the title of monsignor for his publication of a catechism for children and was later named Protonotary Apostolic and General Secretary of the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, serving in this capacity until 1923.^[2]

On July 4, 1924, Pope Pius XI nominated Duarte Costa as Bishop of Botucatu. His episcopal consecration occurred on December 8 that year at the metropolitan cathedral of Rio de Janeiro, presided over by Cardinal Sebastian Leme da Silveira Cintra.^[2]

Attempts at church and societal reform

In the 1930s Duarte Costa became deeply involved in the social and political changes taking place in Brazil. Brazil's economy had collapsed in 1929 as a result of the Great Depression and a populist military regime had taken over the government in 1930. Led by Getúlio Vargas, the new government had an erratic policy record in its early years, sometimes anti-clerical and anti-aristocratic, sometimes swinging the opposite direction. In 1932, Duarte Costa became a leading spokesman for the Catholic Electoral League, which was organized by the church to lobby for Christian principles in the laws and acts of the government.^[2]

In 1932, Duarte Costa played an active role in the Constitutionalist Revolution, a failed attempt to restore constitutional government to Brazil. Duarte Costa formed a "Battalion of the Bishop" to fight on the side of the Constitutionalist troops and helped finance the rebellion by selling off most of the diocese's assets along with his own personal possessions. Duarte Costa's support for the Constitutionalist Revolution earned him the animosity of President Vargas, signaling the beginning of a long period of rocky relations between Duarte Costa and the Brazilian government.^[2]

In 1936, Duarte Costa made his second ad limina visit to Rome, meeting with Pope Pius XI. He presented the Pope with a list of quite radical requests for the Church of Brazil.

In early 1937 President Vargas, fed up with Duarte Costa for his continued public denunciation of the government, petitioned the Holy See for his removal from the Diocese of Botucatu. The Vatican was unwilling to do so directly, so the Apostolic Nuncio in Brazil entered into an agreement with the Secretary of the Diocese of Botucatu to obtain the resignation of Duarte Costa as diocesan bishop.

After the acceptance of his resignation, Duarte Costa was appointed titular bishop of Maura.

Bishop of Maura

After his "forced resignation", Duarte Costa left the diocesan quarters but remained in Rio de Janeiro as Bishop Emeritus of Botucatu and titular Bishop of Maura. He obtained the support of a protector, Cardinal Dom Sebastião da Silveira Cintra, who granted permission for him to keep a private chapel. At this time he established the magazine Nossos ("Ours") as a vehicle to spread devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.^[2]

Soon, however, Duarte Costa resumed his vocal criticism of the government and the national church administration, which he saw as an accessory to the mistreatment of the poor in Brazil. He openly criticized certain papal periodicals and encyclicals, including Rerum novarum (Leo XIII), Quadragesimo anno (Pius XI), and Divini Redemptoris (Pius XI).

In 1942 several priests and nuns of German and Italian ethnicity were arrested in Brazil for operating clandestine radio transmitters, presumably passing information to the German and Italian governments. Duarte Costa publicly said that these individuals were just the tip of the iceberg, and claimed that most German and Italian clergy in Brazil were agents of the German Nazi and Italian Fascist regimes. In light of their allegedly mixed loyalties, Duarte Costa called on all German and Italian clergy to resign.^[3]

In 1944 he gained further notoriety by writing a glowing preface to the Brazilian translation of The Soviet Power by the Very Reverend Hewlett Johnson, the Anglican Dean of Canterbury known as "The Red Dean" for his uncompromising support of the Soviet Union.^[2]

As long as he enjoyed the protection of Cardinal Dom Sebastiao Leme da Silveira Cintra, Duarte Costa's political activism proceeded without much trouble. However, soon after the cardinal's death, Duarte Costa was formally accused by the Brazilian government of being a communist sympathizer. He was arrested on June 6, 1944 and imprisoned in Belo Horizonte. The following month the Ecclesiastical Chamber forbade him from preaching or hearing confessions, as punishment for his undisciplined outspokenness. He remained imprisoned until September 6, 1944, when he was released in response to pressure from the embassies of Mexico and the United States on his behalf.^[2]

Excommunication

After his release from prison Carlos Duarte Costa soon found himself in trouble again. This time it was a result of his accusations that the Vatican Secretariat of State had issued Vatican passports to some high-ranking German Nazis, a practice referred to as the Ratlines.

In May 1945 Duarte Costa 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.^[4]

In response to Duarte Costa's continued insubordination, the Vatican finally laid against him the penalty of excommunication on July 2, 1945. Upon being informed of his excommunication, Duarte Costa responded by saying, "I consider today one of the happiest days of my life." He immediately titled himself "Bishop of Rio de Janeiro" and told the press that he hoped soon to ordain ten married lawyers and professional men as priests in his new church.^[4]

Founding of ICAB

A few days after learning of his excommunication, Duarte Costa established the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church (ICAB). Its articles of incorporation were published in the federal register on July 25, and the church was legally registered as a civil society. On August 18, 1945 Duarte Costas published a "Manifesto to the Nation", in which he again criticized the Roman Catholic Church and promoted his new national Church. Although he had already been excommunicated, on July 24, 1946 he was declared "excommunicado vitando", that is, excommunicated to the severest degree that exists. This was the final decree and was intended to prevent Catholics from having anything to do with him whatsoever.^[2]

After establishing the ICAB, Duarte Costa continued to use the same vestments, insignia, and rites as he had in the Catholic Church. This provoked the cardinals of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to appeal to the Minister of Justice and the President himself for an injunction against both him and the ICAB. On September 27, 1948, the ICAB churches were closed by the courts, on the grounds that they were deceiving the public into thinking they were Catholic churches and clergy. Duarte Costa quickly filed an appeal, and in 1949 the Supreme Court ruled that the ICAB could reopen its doors, on condition that the church use a modified liturgy and its clergy wear gray cassocks, to minimize the potential for confusion with Roman Catholics.^[5]

With the formation of ICAB, Duarte Costa implemented a number of reforms 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”.^[6]

Shortly after founding the church Duarte Costa consecrated two more bishops, Salomão Barbosa Ferraz (August 15, 1945), and Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez (May 3, 1948). These three bishops went on to establish similar autonomous Catholic Apostolic National Churches in several other Latin American countries. Duarte Costa 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.^[7]

Duarte Costa served as leader of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church and its international affiliates for sixteen years until his death in 1961, by which time the church in Brazil is said to have grown to 60,000 members.^[6]

Death and legacy

Duarte Costa died on March 26, 1961 (Palm Sunday), in Rio de Janeiro at 72 years of age. At that time, ICAB had 50 priests and 37 bishops, with many of the congregations meeting in private homes.^[8]

The bishops consecrated by Carlos Duarte Costa went on to consecrate dozens of additional bishops, many of whom had only tenuous relationships with the Brazilian church. Bishops tracing their apostolic succession back to Carlos Duarte Costa have formed numerous other independent Catholic denominations in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, most of which have no formal ties to the Brazilian church.^[7] These vagrant "bishops" are not considered valid by the Brazilian Church due to a defect in intention. Only those bishops aligned with the Brazilian Communion are considered valid. Even bishops in the WCCAC (Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic Churches) have all been consecrated sub conditione to ensure a valid lineage.

On July 4, 1970, the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church acknowledged Duarte Costa's work for the poor and the church by granting him the title "San Carlos do Brazil".

See also

• Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church
• History of Brazil (1930–1945)
• Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez

References

External links

• Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira (ICAB)
• The Mexican National Catholic Church

Preceded by new	Patriarch of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church 1945–1961	Succeeded by Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez