SAINT CARLOS DUARTE COSTA,
Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro,
Founding Patriarch & Primate of
the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil
His Beatitude Saint Carlos Duarte Costa was born July 21, 1888 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the age of nine years old, he received his first communion at the hands of his uncle, Bishop Eduardo Duarte da Silva, on July, 1897. Later that year, he was taken by his uncle to Rome to study at the Pontificio Collegio Pio Latino Americano, a Jesuit minor seminary. Early on, he was ordained a Deacon and served under his uncle, and on May 4, 1911, Saint Carlos Duarte Costa was ordained a priest by Archbishop Joaquim Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti. He would 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 in Uberaba as secretary of the diocese. Saint Carlos Duarte Costa was nominated on July 4, 1924, to be Bishop of Botucatu by Pope Pius XI, and was consecrated on December 8 that year by Cardinal Sebastian Leme da Silveira Cintra.
Early on as Bishop, His Excellency Saint Carlos would be deeply involved in political issues of the people of Brazil. He petitioned not only the President of Brazil, but the Holy See on behalf of the people against the corruption of the government. Angered by his actions, the President would petition that he be removed as Bishop. In a secret plot against the saint, the government worked hand in hand with the Holy See obtaining the resignation of Saint Carlos Duarte Costa as diocesan bishop by tricking him into signing false documents. Saint Carlos Duarte Costa was then reassigned as Titular Bishop of Maura, an extinct diocese.
This would not stop the saint from his dedicated work. His Excellency Saint Carlos remained in Rio de Janeiro as Bishop Emeritus of Botucatu and Titular Bishop of Maura. He later allied and was protected by 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. Soon, he would resume his vocal criticism of the government and the national church administration by way of the magazine and his preaching, denouncing 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).
When several priests and nuns of German and Italian ethnicity were arrested in Brazil in 1942 for operating radio transmitters, spying and passing information to the German and Italian governments, His Excellency declared that most German and Italian clergy in Brazil were agents of the German Nazi and Italian Fascist regimes. His excellency called for all German and Italian clergy to resign. He even accused the Roman Curia at times of these acts. This should be no surprise to many, as the Holy See would later sign a Concordat with Nazi Germany. When he friend Cardinal Dom Sebastião da Silveira Cintra passed away, his protections were lifted, and His Excellency was formally accused, arrested and imprisoned by the Brazilian government of being a communist sympathizer on June 6, 1944. He would be released later that year because of pressure set by the Mexican and US governments.
When he openly accused the Pope of conspiring with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and announced that he would open a Catholic Church for the Brazilians free from Papal rule, His Excellency Saint Carlos Duarte Costa was excommunicated by Pope Pius XII for alleged doctrinal and canonical issues (such as clerical celibacy) in July 2, 1945. He would shoot back with his famous "Manifesto to The Nations", declaring that the Pope of Rome had no power to excommunicate him. The formation of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil would manifest later that same month, with His Excellency being named Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro. The Pope of Rome would issue a declaration of excommunication of the highest kind, and declare his orders null and void. This would not hinder the Saint at all. To this day, both Rome and the Brazilian National Catholics mutually do not recognize one another Holy Orders on an official level, even though Rome accepted a bishop consecrated at the hands of Costa later on.
Persecutions in the form of arrests, beatings, and even death would be launched at the Brazilian Church. The Roman Diocese would sue and have his churches closed, demanding that the Brazilians changed their vestments and seal. He would modify them by adopting grey cassocks. His Holiness Saint Carlos Duarte Costa implemented reforms such as the doing away with Clerical celibacy, the reconciliation of divorced persons, the liturgy being translated into the vernacular, and clergy were expected to live and work amongst the people and support themselves and their ministries by holding secular employment. His Holiness also had many Church services at the homes of Priests and believers.
His Holiness Saint Carlos Duarte Costa would go on to consecrate as Bishops Salomão Barbosa Ferraz (August 15, 1945) and Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez (May 3, 1948). These three bishops would establish several autonomous Catholic national churches in several other Latin American countries. His Holiness Saint Carlos Duarte Costa served as consecrator or co-consecrator of eleven other bishops afterwards for the Brazilian Catholics or other national Catholic Churches. Pope Pius XI would issue a declaration of excommunication of the highest kind, and Pope Paul VI declared his Holy Orders and the orders of the Brazilian Church to be null and void. This would not hinder the Saint or his Church at all. To this day, both Rome and the Brazilian National Catholics mutually do not recognize one another Holy Orders on an official level, even though a few Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Anglicans, and even Rome would fully accept bishops and Clergy consecrated at the hands of Saint Carlos Duarte Costa or with his apostolic succession without the need for reconsecration, declaring them to be validly and properly ordained and in the historic succession of the Church.
At his death in 1961, the church in Brazil grew to nearly 60,000 members. His Holiness Saint Carlos Duarte Costa has been canonized as "St. Carlos of Brazil, Apostle to the Poor" by the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church and others of said same succession.
Holding hands from consecration to consecration down through the generations of Church history and the ministry of the All-Holy Spirit, the United Holy Caribbean Apostolic Church shares in the historic apostolic succession and grace filled ministry of His Holiness Saint Carlos Duarte Costa by way of the teachings and episcopal ministry and lineage of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil and other Old Catholic Churches who have passed on his succession with power and faithfulness.