The CACINA College of Bishops unanimously endorses the following pastoral letter from Bishop Tony Green, issued on September 15, 2025, for dissemination to the National Church.

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Dear St. John of God Parishioners and Friends:

I feel compelled to write to you in light of the troubling rise in political violence in our nation. Most recently, 
the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has unleashed a torrent of vitriolic and hateful rhetoric. 
As Christians, we are called to resist anger and vengeance, and instead lean into our faith, walking in the way of 
Christ. When we answer violence with violence, or hatred with hatred, we only deepen the divisions and risk 
even greater harm.

It grieves me that some political leaders choose to exploit these tragedies by blaming their rivals, rather than 
speaking words that promote unity, discourage violence, and seek peace. I encourage you to raise your voices 
with your elected representatives—not in condemnation, but in the service of the common good, urging them to 
promote peace, justice, and policies that protect the dignity of all people.

I am fully aware that many of us did not share Mr. Kirk’s views, and that some of his ideas caused real harm. 
Yet he, like all of us, had the right to speak freely. He did not deserve to be murdered for his speech, no matter 
how strongly we may have disagreed with him. Our faith reminds us that every person bears the image of God, 
even those with whom we profoundly disagree.

Jesus himself commanded us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. From the cross he 
prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” His words remain a summons to us: to pray, to 
forgive, and to stand for peace even in the face of violence.

We also remember the heartbreaking deaths of Minnesota State Lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband 
Mark, who were assassinated only months ago, as well as the children killed at Annunciation Catholic School. 
Each of these tragedies is a stark reminder of the urgent need for our leaders to address gun violence with 
courage and wisdom.

I urge you to keep all of these victims, their families, and even the perpetrators of these crimes in your prayers. 
Pray for their healing, their repentance, and for God’s peace to break into the brokenness of our world.

Finally, I ask you to resist the temptation to lash out on social media or in conversations in ways that deepen our 
political divides. Instead, let us bear witness to our faith by affirming the truth that every person is created in the 
image and likeness of God and is deserving of dignity and respect.

May Christ, the Prince of Peace, guide our hearts and our words, that we may be instruments of reconciliation in 
a time of discord.

In Christ’s peace,
Bishop Tony Green, FCR

CACINA College of Bishops Pastoral Letter in Support of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Church.

On Saturday, October 26^th – 2024 – Michael Ellis, NFCR, was ordained a Bishop in the Catholic Apostolic Church in North America (CACINA). The service was held at the CACINA Parish of St. John of God in Schenectady, New York. Bishop Anthony Green, FCR, Auxiliary Bishop in the Diocese of Little Portion, was the principal consecrator with CACINA’s Presiding Bishop Michael Theogene, OSB, and Bishop Monica Kennedy as Co-consecrators. Many of Bishop Ellis’ family friends and colleagues were in attendance.  Also, clergy from Protestant faith traditions attended, including Pastor Katelyn Bradwell of Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church where St. John of God Parish nests.

The following day, on Sunday, October 27^th, Bishop Francisco Betancourt, FCR, who has been the Ordinary of the Diocese of Little Portion for more than 20 years, moved to the position of Bishop Emeritus and passed the crozier of the Ordinary to Bishop Green, with Bishop Ellis taking the position of Auxiliary Bishop.

The Catholic Apostolic Church in North America has a rich history and is proud to have sustained a lineage of direct apostolic lines to Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa, who is also known as St. Charles of Brazil. The Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira (ICAB), in English The Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, canonized Costa on July 4, 1970, and gave him the title "São Carlos do Brasil" - Saint Charles of Brazil.

CACINA has carried on Dom Carlos’ theological vision of liberation theology. At its core, his theology was incarnational - not just God with us, but God as one of us.  Dom Carlos understood that a Christian theology of liberation is tasked with engaging the world from the faith perspective of a Christ who situates himself in solidarity with those whom society has marginalized. In God’s preferential option for the poor, the messianic community is identified and formed, and the church is made visible.

Carlos Duarte Costa centered his devotional life in the Catholic intellectual tradition’s dialogue between fides and praxis.  In his writing (which is not voluminous), and especially in his embrace of faithful Christian discipleship as a countercultural call to radical identification with the poor, we observe the foundation of much that would inform later theologians, giving shape to a mature theology of liberation. Almost alone at the time, he was also an environmentalist bishop, steadfastly maintaining that the world’s resources must be held not in private ownership but in sacred trust for the well-being of all creation.

Bishop Michael Ellis joins the College of Bishops of CACINA as it celebrates its 75^th year of ministry as a national Catholic Church this year. Bishop Ellis joins with the CACINA College of Bishops to oversee thirteen parishes and missions through the United States, most of which are in the northeast. Bishop Ellis comes to the bishop role with more than thirty years of work as a psychotherapist in private practice, and he will continue his vocational ministry in hospice chaplaincy.

The College of Bishops issued a Pastoral Statement in response to the  Roman Catholic Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith "Dignitas Infinita" on Human Dignity.