Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez

Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez (4 December 1922 – 29 October 2009) was a Venezuelan Independent Catholic priest who rose to the leadership of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church (ICAB). Castillo Mendez was arguably the second or third patriarch of ICAB and its 48 dioceses, although none of his predecessors used that title. He was apparently the nominal head of a network of Iglesias Catolicas Apostolicas Nacionales (ICAN) or National Catholic Apostolic Churches and the Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic National Churches (WCCAC), which were unsuccessful attempts to form an international association of Independent Catholic churches.

Although he had little formal education, Castillo Mendez contrived to be ordained priest on 10 August 1944, although he was immediately censured and was at no point recognized as a Roman Catholic priest. On 8 March 1947, Castillo Mendez became the founder of the independent Venezuelan Catholic Apostolic Church (ICAV – Iglesia Católica Apostólica Venezolana). Castillo Mendez was subsequently excommunicated by the Holy See. On 3 May 1948, he was consecrated a bishop and Patriarch for the Venezuelan Catholic Apostolic Church by the bishop Carlos Duarte Costa (excommunicated former Roman Catholic bishop of Botucatu, Brazil) in the Panama Canal Zone. Castillo Mendez later succeeded Duarte Costa and became the President of the Episcopal Council of ICAB in 1982. He died on 29 October 2009.