His Excellency. Most Reverend Dom. Carlos Duarte Costa was consecrated as the Roman Catholic Diocesan Bishop of Botucatu in Brazil on December 8, 1924, until certain views he expressed about the treatment of the Brazil’s poor, by both the civil government and the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil caused for his removal from the Diocese of Botucatu.
His Excellency was subsequently named as punishment as Titular bishop of Maurensi by the late Pope Pius XI of the Roman Catholic Church in 1937. His Excellency, Most Reverend Lord Carlos Duarte Costa had been a strong advocate in the 1930s for the reform of the Roman Catholic Church, he challenged many of the key issues such as
• Divorce,
• challenged mandatory celibacy for the clergy, and publicly stated his contempt regarding. (This is not a theological point, but a disciplinary one )
Even at this moment in time in an interview with Germany's Die Zeit magazine the current Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis is considering allowing married priests as was in the old time including lets not forget married bishops and we could quote many Bishops, Cardinals and Popes over the centurys prior to Vatican II who was married.
• abuses of papal power, including the concept of Papal Infallibility, which the bishop considered a misguided and false dogma. His Excellency President Getúlio Dornelles Vargas asked the Holy See of Rome for the removal of His Excellency Most Reverend Dom. Carlos Duarte Costa from the Diocese of Botucatu. The Vatican could not do this directly.
Therefore the Apostolic Nuncio to Brazil entered into an agreement with the Secretary of the Diocese of Botucatu to obtain the resignation of His Excellency, Most Reverend Lord. Carlos Duarte Costa as Diocesan Bishop of Botucatu. This sneaky act by the secretary in the daily documents and reports that Most Reverend Lord Carlos Duarte Costa always had to sign placed the resignation letter within a series of documents which His Excellency, Most Reverend Dom. Carlos Duarte Costa signed as a result of the deception. The Diocesan secretary of Botucatu informed the Holy See of Rome that His Excellency, Most Reverend Dom. Carlos Duarte Costa had signed the document mistakenly without his excellency reading it. The Holy See of Rome renounced claims that Most Reverend Dom. Carlos Duarte Costa letter of resignation was a forgery based on the verbal evidence of the Secretary of the Diocese.
His Excellency's resignation was accepted by His Holiness Pope Pius XI on the 22nd September 1937. After the acceptance of his resignation His Excellency, Most Reverend Lord Carlos Duarte Costa was appointed Titular Bishop of Maura, an extinct diocese of Africa. He was permitted to have his full sacramental privileges by His Eminence, Most Reverend Cardinal Sebastião Leme da Silveira Cintra, until his eminence the cardinal passed away in 1942. The Roman Catholic Church hierarchy decided that now the bishops spiritual protector was dead, they would persecute Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa openly and that is exactly what happened and continues to this day to his successors. After the forced resignation and alleged excommunication. Archbishop Carlos Duarte Costa made a speech on the 18th August 1945 which contained some 11 pages for brief it stated:
"I consider today one of the happiest days of my life."
Excommunication may it be known to the Brazilian public that the Bishop of Rome, Eugenio Pacelli, has no authority to excommunicate me and in accord with what I have made public, I am a more authentic Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, as I was elected by popular acclamation of the Brazilian people, than he, the Bishop of Rome, elected by Italian Cardinals. Nor does the present century accept excommunication, a political tool of the Middle Ages when the Bishop of Rome, seemingly oblivious to the evangelical Magna Carta contained in the Sermon on the Mount, spewed forth his hatred against emperors and kings, who did not submit to the will of him. A few months prior to an attempt to excommunicate him by the Bishop of Rome. Archbishop Duarte Costa founded as His Excellency the Archbishop of Rio de Janerio by re-establishing the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil (Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira) on the 5 July 1945. He published his Manifesto on July 25, 1945.
He was the was the main founder and first Patriarch of the Brazilian Catholic Church and its international extension, the Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic National Churches. This is the reason why the Bishop of Rome in late August 1945 threatened to excommunicate him for founding a new catholic church which would implement changes such as:
1. Clerical celibacy was abolished, though he himself never married and remained celibate.
Rules for the reconciliation of divorced and remarried persons were implemented. (although in August 2015 the Roman Catholic Church Vatican II has taken the same stand in regards this)
The liturgy was translated into the vernacular.
Clergy were expected to live and work among the people, and support themselves and their ministries, by holding secular employment.
Upon Archbishop Carlos Duarte Costa's death in 1961. Archbishop Luis Fernando Castillo Méndez was elected president of the Episcopal Council, and was designated Patriarch of ICAB and ICAN (the international church communion). H.E, Archbishop Castillo Mendez as a young bishop was tortured on orders of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Venezuela, he was imprisoned and his flesh was severally burned with hot irons and told to give up his faith, vocation and office. He refused and was rescued by Archbishop Carlos Duarte Costa weeks later by hiding in an airport toilet and he was smuggled on to private air plane and taken to Brazil where he undertook Brazilian citizenship. He never once thought that his friend and principal consecrator would one day be an inspiration to the religious world and that he would be the Patriarch of the Brazilian Catholic Church to succeed Archbishop Duarte Costa.
His Holiness Patriarch Lord Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez was in private talks with His Holiness, Pope John Paul II in a vision on returning the Brazilian Catholic Church back to Rome as an Autocephalous Catholic Church not to dissimilar to that what the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch did. However the Council of Bishops of the new Brazilian Catholic Church had voted against re-joining the Roman Catholic Church Vatican II. The bishops claimed that much suffering and torture had been inflicted upon them largely at the urging of the Roman Catholic Church and that unless they purged their actions and sought forgiveness for their years of actions, then they could not join as one as the split caused by the Roman Catholic Church remains even to this day.