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.
[2] His reception met with some resistance and confusion in Rome, where it had been assumed that he was widowed or chaste.
[3] He was eventually named titular bishop of Eleutherna in 1963 and took part in the Second Vatican Council.
Ferraz was a rare example of a legally accepted married bishop in the modern Roman Catholic history.