Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez

Luis Fernando Castillo Méndez (December 4, 1922 - October 29, 2009) was patriarch of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church (ICAB - Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira), an independent catholic church. The Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church lists 48 dioceses, and is the mother church of the Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic National Churches (WCCAC) a loose communion of churches in 14 countries.

He had been a Roman Catholic priest from August 10, 1944 until March 8, 1947, when Castillo Méndez left the Roman Catholic Church and the archdiocese of Caracas to become the founder of the independent Venezuelan Catholic Apostolic Church. Castillo Méndez was subsequently excommunicated by the Holy See. On May 3, 1948 he was consecrated a bishop and patriarch for the Venezuelan Catholic Apostolic Church by the bishop Carlos Duarte Costa (excommunicated former Roman Catholic bishop of Botucatu, Brazil), assisted by his independent auxiliary bishop Salomão Barbosa Ferraz, in the Panama Canal Zone.

Patriarch Dom Luis Fernando Castillo Méndez of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic church, May 2007

Biography

Early life and ministry

Luis Fernando Castillo Méndez was born in Caracas, Venezuela on December 4, 1922. After studying in the Roman Catholic archdiocesan seminary in Caracas, he and his class of seminarians were sent to Solsona, Catalonia, in Spain, and on August 10, 1944, Bishop Valentín Comellas y Santamaría ordained him to the priesthood.

Upon returning to Venezuela, at a time of massive upheaval in the country, Castillo Méndez became involved in a movement called the Curas Criollos ("Native Priests" or literally "Creole Priests"). Having learned through periodicals about the church reform movement led by the left-wing government critic and Vatican critic Dom Carlos Duarte Costa (former Roman Catholic bishop of Botucatu) in Brazil and the founding of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church (separated from the Holy See and the Roman Catholic Church) in 1945, Castillo Méndez entered into correspondence with Duarte Costa.

Separation from the Roman Catholic Church

In 1947 Castillo Méndez and three other clergy formally established the "Venezuelan Catholic Apostolic Church". Like the Brazilian Catholic church led by its first Patriarch, Dom Carlos Duarte Costa, the Venezuelan church was to be independent of the Vatican, would use Spanish instead of Latin in the liturgy, and would permit its clergy to marry. Castillo Méndez filed the new church's organizational papers with the Interior Ministry in early 1947, with signed affidavits from 250 fellow priests who had unanimously elected him Bishop of Caracas. The Minister of Interior immediately ordered the federal police to ensure that Castillo Méndez did not wear the vestments or insignia of the office of a bishop.^[1] However, the new church did receive public approval from the Democratic Action and Communist parties.^[2]

On March 8, 1947 Castillo Méndez and the other three founders of the Venezuelan independent church were formally excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic archbishop, Lucas Guillermo Castillo, stated in the excommunication directive that the four priests had "violated fundamental dogma of the Roman Catholic Church and held concepts blasphemous, as well as several which are offensive to the person and authority of the Roman Pope Pius XII." The notice further stated that any Catholics who supported this new church would also be excommunicated.^[1]

Entry into the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church

In 1947 Castillo Méndez was serving as pastor of St. Teresa's parish in Caracas.^[3] Having been elected leader by his fellow priests in the nascent national church, he sought to go to Brazil to receive episcopal consecration from Duarte Costa. However, the Venezuelan government did not consent to this trip, nor would it allow Duarte Costa to enter Venezuela. In the end, Castillo Méndez and Duarte Costa made arrangements to meet in the Panama Canal Zone, a territory under the jurisdiction of the United States, which did not have formal diplomatic relations with the Vatican at that time. On May 3, 1948, Costa consecrated Castillo Méndez as a bishop, with the title of Bishop of Caracas and Primate of Venezuela, he was assisted by Dom Salamao Ferraz, Bishop of São Paulo as co-consecrator.

Castillo Méndez's consecration led to his official persecution by the Roman Catholic Cardinal in Venezuela. He arrived in Brazil on June 21, 1950, where he was installed by Patriarch Duarte Costa as parish vicar and diocesan bishop of Uberlandia in the state of Minas Gerais. In 1957 he was moved to Rio de Janeiro where he served as auxiliary bishop. He was reassigned to Brasília in 1960^[3] where he served as bishop of the state of Goias.^[3] It is worth noting that the erection of the Brasília diocese predated that of the Roman Catholic archdiocese by five years, as a result of which the Roman Catholic hierarchy were forced to recognise, and never able to challenge, the title of Bishop of Brasília.^[4] In 1961 he acquired Brazilian citizenship.

Primacy

Upon Bishop Duarte Costa's death in 1961, leadership of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church was apparently in a flux for several years, with several individuals leading or claiming to lead the church, often for very brief periods of time.^[5] Some sources indicate that Castillo Méndez was leader of the church as early as 1961. Clearly by 1982 he was undisputed leader, elected that year as president of the Episcopal Council of ICAB. In 1988 he was designated Patriarch of ICAB, and in 1990 he was named Patriarch of ICAN, which then became the WCCAC, the church's international communion, positions which he held until his death.

Castillo Mendez, now titled "Dom", being the honorific title "Lord" for bishops in Brazil, is considered to be more theologically conservative than his predecessors. He used the Tridentine Pontifical in the vernacular for all episcopal consecrations. However, like most independent established Christian churches, he denied papal infallibility the same as the Orthodox churches and does not support obligatory priestly celibacy. In the 1980s, he entered into dialogue with Pope John Paul II at the Pope's request to see if reunification was possible. It was the Brazilian Church that refused, remembering the various ongoing acts of malice and even torture committed by the Roman Church against the Brazilian Church.

Death

On the morning of October 29, 2009, at approximately 9 am, Castillo Mendez, the Patriarch of Brazil and the Worldwide Family of Catholic Apostolic National Churches, died at the age of 86.

Note on his name

As a native of Venezuela, Castillo Méndez's family name (patronym) is "Castillo", with "Méndez" being his mother's family name. In Spanish-speaking countries, people normally have two surnames. One is inherited from the father, the other from the mother. The father's surname is written before the mother's surname and, when addressing a person formally, one usually uses the father's surname (e.g. "Señor Castillo"). (See article Spanish naming customs)

However, as an immigrant to Brazil, where the custom is to place the father's surname in the final position, Castillo Méndez was normally addressed as "Méndez", even though this is technically his mother's surname.

Another Brazilian custom is to address bishops and high-ranking church officials with the honorific title of "Dom" followed by the individual's first name. Thus Castillo Méndez was often addressed as "Dom Luis".

References