The Roman Catholic Society of Pope Leo XIII led by David Bell and all organisations and institutions linked to it, including the Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira (ICAB)
are schismatic communities that have no status whatsoever in the
Catholic Church which does not recognise its Episcopal and priestly
ordinations of its members.This is according to a letter (protocol 1177/12) sent by Apostolic Nuncio Giovanni D’Aniello on behalf of the Secretary of State to the President of the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis.
Vatican Insider published an article about the strange case of “His Eminence Bell” last August.
David Bell, who professes to be the archbishop of London, was ordained in ICAB and founded the Roman Catholic Society of Pope Pius XIII with branches in Italy as well.
Bell, who claims he follows the Tridentine Rite and has consecrated at least twenty bishops across the world, had been welcomed in a community of nuns in San Giovanni Valdarno, in the Diocese of Fiesole, in Tuscany, central Italy, where he ordained a deacon (journalist Michel Upmann, spokesman for Leo XIII Italy who detached himself from Bell) and a priest (Antonio Fabbroni).
These ordinations took place without the approval of the local bishop, who issued a decree dissolving the monastic community.
David Bell has insistently stressed his “catholicity” on the Roman Catholic Society of Pope Leo XIII website, publishing a number of photos from a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the end of a general audience in June 2011, which he was admitted to along with some other bishops of the society.
Nuncio D’Aniello’s letter to Cardinal Damasceno, dated 8 October 2012, states that “the Pope Leo XIII community is schismatic and as such cannot receive official recognition from the Catholic Church.”
Furthermore, bishops ordained in that community cannot carry out a ministry in the Catholic Church as it does not recognise these ordinations.”
“All organisations or associations linked to that society should be treated as one would treat any non-Catholic institution.”
“Having committed the crime of creating a schism, those “ordained” by him will in turn be committing the same crime, incurring a latae sententiae excommunication.”
Similar considerations apply to Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira, the Nuncio explained on behalf of the Secretariat of State. Mgr. D’Aniello’s letter was sent to Brazilian bishops.
A few days prior to this, a similar but more reserved letter was sent to the Catholic bishop of Brentwood, Thomas MacMahon who asked the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to put a spotlight on Bell.
The secretary of the dicastery, Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer told MacMahon that Bell “must not be allowed to exercise any ministry in the Catholic Church and it did not recognise his ordination.”