Salomão Barbosa Ferraz

Salomão Barbosa Ferraz (Jau, Brazil, 1880-1969) was a Brazilian Priest and Bishop whose career took him through membership of several Christian denominations from the Presbyterian Church through to the Roman Catholic Church.
Originally a Presbyterian Minister, Barbosa Ferraz was ordained an Anglican Priest in 1917. He founded an ecumenical society, the "Order of Saint Andrew", in 1928, and was instrumental in organising a 'Free Catholic Congress' in 1936. At the close of this event he established a "Free Catholic Church" and was elected as the church's first Bishop. The Second World War halted plans to be consecrated Bishop by European Old Catholics, but Salomão Barbosa Ferraz was eventually consecrated Bishop by Carlos Duarte Costa following this Bishop's excommunication by the Vatican in 1945.
Salomão Barbosa Ferraz in turn consecrated Manoel Ceia Laranjeira for the Free Catholic Church of Brazil in 1951, but sought reception into the Roman Catholic Church, which he achieved under Pope John XXIII, leaving Manoel Ceia Laranjeira at the head of the Free Catholic Church, then renamed Independent Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil.
In 1963 Bishop Ferraz was received in the Roman Catholic Church as the Titular Bishop of Eleutherna and took part of sessions of the Second Vatican Council under that office. He was also appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Rio de Janeiro by Pope John XXIII. Bishop Ferraz died in 1969 leaving his wife and seven children.
Bishop Salomão Barbosa Ferraz was a rare instace of legally accepted married bishop in the twentieth century Roman Catholicism.
==References==
* http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bferraz.html, http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bduco.html
* http://www.tboyle.net/Catholicism/Costa_Consecrations.html
* http://www.igrejacatolicaindependente.com.br
Category:1880 births
Category:1969 deaths
Category:Brazilian Roman Catholic priests
Category:20th-century Roman Catholic bishops
Category:Participants in the Second Vatican Council
Category:Presbyterian ministers
Category:Former Protestants
Category:Brazilian Christian religious leaders
Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism
Category:Bishops of the Free Catholic Church
Category:Brazilian Roman Catholics
Category:Married Roman Catholic bishops
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