|
Archbishop Carlos Duarte Costa
established the independent branches of this Church's Apostolic Succession
having been originally ordained a Roman Catholic Priest on 1 April 1911. He
was consecrated as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Botucatu, Brazil, on 8
December 1924 and held that see until certain views he expressed about
treatment of the Brazil's poor, by both the civil government and the Roman
Catholic Church in Brazil, caused his removal from the Diocese of Botucatu.
Archbishop Duarte Costa was
subsequently named Titular Bishop of Maura by the late Pope Pius XII
(Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, formerly Vatican Secretary of State until 1939,
under Pope Pius XI). Bishop Duarte Costa had been a strong advocate in the
1930's for reform of the Roman Church; he challenged many of the key issues
that the Second Vatican Council would later thirty-five years take action
upon.
Archbishop Duarte Costa's criticisms of
the Holy See, particularly about Vatican foreign policy during World War II
toward Nazi Germany, were not well received at the Vatican, and he was
eventually separated from the Roman Church by Pope Pius XII because of his
views on the Vatican State's foreign policy during and immediately after
World War II.
Duarte Costa espoused liberal church
positions on divorce, challenged mandatory celibacy for the clergy, and
publicly stated his contempt regarding abuses of papal power, including the
concept of Papal Infallibility, which the Bishop considered a misguided and
false dogma. Bishop Duarte Costa left the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic
Church on 6 July 1945. He immediately founded the independent Igreja
Catolica Apostolica Brasileira (ICAB) on that same date and remained Primate
until his death in 1961.
Archbishop Luis Castillo Mendez of
Brazil, Patriarch of the National Catholic Apostolic Churches (Igreja
Catolica Apostolica Nationales) was consecrated by and succeeded the late
Archbishop Duarte Costa as Primate in 1961. Archbishop Luis Castillo Mendez
is still leading the worldwide spiritual confederation of the National
Catholic Apostolic Churches founded by the late Archbishop Duarte Costa.
These national churches are now estimated to have a combined worldwide
membership which exceeds 12 million members. According to the ancient
practice of the early Church and among many Orthodox Christian bishops, such
catholic apostolic churches exist in their countries, functioning both as
autonomous and independent Particular Churches.
In addition to ICAB in Brazil, there
are sister apostolic branches in thirteen other countries in the Western
Hemisphere, Europe, the Pacific and in Asia, including: Argentina (ICAA),
Chile, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Australia,
the Philippines, Canada and the United States of America. While bound by a
common origin from Archbishop Duarte Costa's apostolic line, each bishop is
autonomous, being completely independent and self-governing, while adhering
to doctrinal precepts of Orthodox Christianity.
Bishop Salomao Ferraz who was a former
Roman Catholic Priest, was consecrated a bishop by Archbishop Carlos Duarte
Costa for the Igreja Catolica Apostolica Brasileira (ICAB) in 1945, and was
eventually reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church in 1958 during the late
pontificate of Pope Pius XII. Bishop Ferraz was named by the Holy See to be
Titular Bishop of Eleuterna on May 12, 1963.
Although still married, Bishop Ferraz
was later appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Rio de Janeiro by Pope John XXIII.
Bishop Ferraz was later called by Pope
Paul VI to serve on a working commission of the Second Vatican Council and
addressed the Council Fathers in session.
It is notable that Bishop Ferraz was
never re-consecrated by the Roman Catholic Church, even conditionally (sub conditione), and later was buried with the full honors accorded bishops of
the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Church by accepting Bishop Ferraz in
this manner, without any re-consecration, affirm both de jure and de facto
the sacramental validity of the Duarte Costa Apostolic Succession lines of
what is commonly known as the "Rebiba Apostolic Succession."
Inclusive Orthodox Church's Apostolic
Succession can be traced from all three of the bishops consecrated by
Archbishop Carlos Duarte Costa: Bishops Castillo Mendez, Ferraz and Milton
Cunha. The Rebiba Apostolic Succession can be traced definitively as far back as the
6th Century among the Archbishops of Canterbury and also from the Roman
Catholic Church starting in 1566, eventually passed through Popes Benedict
XIII, Benedict XIV and Clement XIII.
Inclusive Orthodox Church's Bishops are
in this particular apostolic line, respectively 5th and 6th direct
successors to Archbishop Carlos Duarte Costa; and therefore, 15th and 16th
in a direct line of bishops succeeding through His Holiness, the late Pope
Clement XIII (1758 - 1769). |
