Memorial of the
Vocation
of
Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa
1888 - 1967
•
The Evangelical Catholic Church celebrates the Vocation of
Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa, the patriarch of the Independent or
Autocephalous Catholic Movement, on July 2nd, the anniversary of his
excommunication by the Church of Rome.
We celebrate not the sadness of that event, but rather we
celebrate Costa's fidelity to his vocation as priest and bishop as
he continued to dedicate his life in service to the sacramental and
pastoral care of the People of God.
The apostolic linage of the Evangelical Catholic Church is
rooted in Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa. We are humbled to be able to
witness Costa's vocational, spiritual, and sacramental fidelity and
commitment.
•
Overview of the
Life of Bishop Costa
Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa was consecrated as the Roman
Catholic Diocesan Bishop of Botucatu, Brazil, on December 8, 1924,
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. Bishop
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.
Bishop 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. This
action was taken only after Duarte Costa's strong and repeated
public denunciations over the fact that the Vatican Secretariat of
State was engaged in the issuance of Vatican Passports to some very
high ranking German ex-Nazis, a practice referred to as the
"Ratline."
These former Nazi officials were among some of the most
notorious of war criminals, such as, the Auschwitz Concentration
Camp Commandant Adolf Eichmann and the infamous, Dr. Josef Mengele,
the "Angel of Death," both of whom traveled after the War on
officially issued Vatican Passports. Such criminals were in flight
from trial to South America in 1945.
The Brazilian Government came under the criticism of Bishop
Duarte Costa for collaboration with the Roman Church over these
passports. Bishop Duarte Costa espoused more pastoral church
positions on divorce, challenged mandatory celibacy for the clergy,
and publicly stated his concerns regarding abuses of church power.
Political
Pressure and Forced Resignation
President Getulio Vargas, infuriated with Dom Carlos Duarte
Costa, for his having convinced a battalion of soldiers from the
Constitutional Troops to join him in his struggle against the
corruption of the government, President Vargas asked the Holy See
for the removal of Dom Carlos Duarte Costa from the Diocese of
Botucatu.
The Vatican could not do it 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 Duarte
Costa, as Diocesan Bishop of Botucatu. The secretary, in the daily
documents and reports that Dom Carlos Duarte Costa always had to
sign, placed the resignation letter within a series of documents,
which Dom Carlos Duarte Costa signed as a result of the deception.
The Diocesan of Botucatu informed the Holy See that Dom
Carlos Duarte Costa had signed the document mistakenly without
reading it. This happened in the beginning of 1937. The Holy See
renounced claims that it was a forgery, based on the secretary of
the Diocese, and the resignation was accepted by Pope Pious XI on
October 6, 1937. After the acceptance of the resignation, Dom Carlos
was appointed Titular Bishop of Maura, an extinct Diocese.
Excommunication
On June 06, 1944, Dom Carlos Duarte Costa, by the order of
the government, facilitated by the Apostolic Nuncio joining the
Brazilian fascists, was imprisoned and led to Belo Horizonte - MG,
where he was accused of being a communist sympathizer, and remained
imprisoned until 06 September 1944, when the order against the
Brazilian Association of the Press was lifted, the government of
Mexico and the United Nations, intervened together to the Brazilian
Government through its intermediaries of their embassies in favor of
Dom Carlos Duarte Costa.
Several warnings had been given to Dom Carlos Duarte Costa,
from the Roman Apostolic administration. But the more he was warned,
more he defended the Christian faith, the laborers, the existing
native land against the fascists and Nazis in the Church and its
hierarchy. Without any hope of the submission of Dom Carlos Duarte
Costa, the Vatican, enraged, laid against Dom Carlos Duarte Costa,
Bishop of Maura, the penalty of excommunication on July 02, 1945.