Luigi Mascolo was an Italian priest who controversially defected to the Brazilian schismatic church the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, founded by Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa in 1945. Luigi Mascolo was a priest of the Diocese of Matera-Irsina, born in the small south-east Italian town of Irsina, who went to Brazil as a missionary. The current leader of the Argentinian schismatic church, the Iglesia Católica Apostólica Argentina, states that Mascolo had been sent to Brazil with the mission of undermining the Brazilian Church. In any case, he was won over to the "ICAB" and was consecrated a Bishop of the separatist church in 1964 by Dom Antidio Jose Vargas. Legend recalls that Bishop Mascolo bore a remarkable likeness to Pope John XXIII. As Bishop of Rio de Janeiro for the ICAB, Mascolo