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.
Early
life and ministry
Carlos Duarte Costa was born in
Rio de Janeiro
on July 21, 1888. at the residence of his uncle (later
Bishop)
Eduardo Duarte da Silva.
The son of Joao 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 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-run
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,
Costa served under his uncle, Dom Eduardo, in the Cathedral
Church of Uberaba. On May 4, 1911 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 in Uberaba, as secretary of the
diocese.
Costa was awarded the title
Monsignor
for his publication of a
catechism
for children, and later was 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 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 Sebastian
Cardinal
Leme da Silveira Cintra.[2]
Attempts at church and societal reform
In the 1930s 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
Getulio 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 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 Costa played an active role in
the
Constitutionalist Revolution,
a failed attempt to restore constitutional government to Brazil.
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. 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 Costa and the Brazilian government.[2]
In 1936 Dom Carlos made his second
ad limina
visit to Rome, meeting with Pope Pius XI in the
Vatican.
He presented the Pope with a list of quite radical (for the
time) requests for the clergy and people of his diocese,
including:
- celebration of the
Mass
and administration of the
sacraments
in the
vernacular
language;
- permission for
clergy
to marry;
- the abolition of auricular
confession,
replacing it with general or communal confession and
absolution;
- distribution of
Holy Communion
to the
laity
under both kinds (i.e., bread and wine);
- institution of the permanent
diaconate
for married persons;
- celebration of the Mass "versus
populi" (facing the people) with the priest behind the
altar;
- creation of a Council of Advice,
composed of bishops who would govern the Church together
with the Pope;
- participation of laypersons in the
administration of the Word, of the Eucharist, and in
evangelization.[2]
These requests were not accepted by the
Pope at that time, although twenty-five years later many were
implemented by the
Second Vatican Council.
In early 1937 President Vargas, fed up
with Dom Carlos 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 Dom Carlos as
diocesan bishop. In an act of deception, a resignation letter
was placed into a stack of documents which Dom Carlos had to
sign in short order. He signed the letter, but upon realizing
what had happened, he informed the Holy See that he had signed
the document mistakenly without reading it. The Holy See
renounced claims that it was a forgery based on statements from
the secretary of the diocese, and the resignation was accepted
by Pope Pius XI on October 6, 1937.
After the acceptance of his
resignation, Dom Carlos was appointed
titular bishop
of Maura, an extinct diocese in Africa.[2]
Bishop of Maura
After his "forced resignation", Dom
Carlos 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 Sebastiao Leme
da Silveira Cintra, who granted permission for him to keep a
private chapel, as well as faculties to preside over marriage,
celebrate masses, and administer the sacrament of
Confirmation
in parishes where he was invited by the respective priests. At
this time he established the magazine Nossos ("Ours") as
a vehicle to spread devotion to the
Blessed Virgin Mary.[2]
Soon, however, Dom Carlos 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. Costa
publicly opined 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, 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 Rev.
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, Dom Carlos'
political activism proceeded without much trouble. However, soon
after the cardinal's death, Dom Carlos 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
Future Pope Pius XII signs the
Reichskonkordat
with representatives of the Nazi German government
in 1933. Carlos Duarte Costa's vocal criticism of
Pope Pius XII's accommodation of the Nazi regime
ultimately led to Costa's excommunication.
After his release from prison Costa
soon found himself in trouble again. This time it was a result
of his unsupported 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 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.[4]
In response to Costa's continued
insubordination, the Vatican finally laid against him the
penalty of
excommunication
on July 2, 1945. Upon being informed of his excommunication,
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, Dom Carlos 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 Dom
Carlos 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, 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. Dom
Carlos 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, Dom Carlos
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 Dom
Carlos 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. Dom Carlos 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]
Dom Carlos 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]
[edit]
Death and legacy
Dom Carlos Duarte Costa died on March
26, 1961 (Palm
Sunday) in Rio de Janeiro at 73
years of age. At that time, the ICAB had 50 priests and 37
bishops, with many of the congregations meeting in private
homes.[8]
The bishops consecrated by 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 Costa have formed numerous other independent catholic
denominations in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, most of
which have no formal ties to the Brazilian church.[7]
On July 4, 1970 the Brazilian Catholic
Apostolic Church acknowledged Dom Carlos' work for the poor and
the church by granting him the title “Saint Carlos of Brazil."
See also
References
-
^
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bduco.html
-
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
"Foundation of All Catholic
Apostolic National Churches"
from website of CANC-UK
-
^
"Bishop Urges Weeding Out",
The
New York Times, Sept. 22, 1942
-
^
a
b
"Rebel in Rio", Time Magazine,
July 23, 1945
-
^
"Freedom of Religious Worship"
from the Brazilian Supreme Court historical website
-
^
a
b
Randolph A. Brown, "A Concise
History of the Western Orthodox Church in America (WOCA)"
-
^
a
b
Costa consecrations website
-
^
"Carlos Duarte, 72, Led Brazil
Church", The New York Times, March 27, 1961
the Celtic
Christian Church
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