ROME — Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former Vatican envoy, has refused to comply with a summons from the Vatican on charges of schism and reiterated that he does not recognize Pope Francis as head of the Catholic Church.
“As I stated in my June 20 statement, I do not recognize the authority of the court that claims to judge me, nor of its president or those who appointed him,” Archbishop Viganò said. statement.
“My decision, painful as it is, is not the result of haste or rebelliousness, but rather is dictated by the moral necessity which, as a Bishop and successor of the Apostles, obliges me in my conscience to bear witness to the truth, to God Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ,” he declared.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Viganò as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States in 2011, a role he held for five years from 2011 to 2016.
Viganò became a conservative superstar after publishing his explosive book in 2018. report They condemned Pope Francis for restoring a gay abuser to high rank despite knowing about his serial abuse of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
In his 11-page affidavit, Archbishop Viganò alleges that Pope Benedict XVI imposed “canonical sanctions” on Cardinal McCarrick between 2009 and 2010, banning him from traveling, celebrating Mass in public or attending public meetings, but that Pope Francis later lifted those sanctions and appointed Cardinal McCarrick as his close personal adviser.
“Francis has abandoned the mission that Christ gave to Peter to confirm the brothers. In fact, by his actions he has divided and led the brothers astray and encouraged the wolves to continue to tear apart the sheep of Christ’s flock,” Viganò said, calling on the pope to resign.
“At this extremely dramatic moment for the global Church, by admitting his fault and following his declared principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must set an example for the cardinals and bishops who first covered up Mr McCarrick’s abuse and resign along with all of them,” the archbishop said.
Viganò’s increasingly inflammatory claims alienated many of his former admirers, and he not only rejected the authority of Pope Francis, but also the legitimacy of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the seminal ecumenical council praised by St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
In June, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Argentine Cardinal Victor “Tucho” Fernández, ordered the former Vatican diplomat to appear in Rome to face an extrajudicial criminal trial on charges of schism for denying the legitimacy of Pope Francis and the Second Vatican Council.
Canon Law Define “Schism” means “the abandonment of obedience to the Pope, or the departure from communion with the faithful of the Church subordinate to the Pope.” declare The divisionists are Latte Cententia [automatic] “Excommunicated.”
“I face this challenge with the determination, knowing that I see no reason to separate myself from the communion of Holy Church and the Holy See, which I have always served with filial piety and loyalty,” Viganò replied.
“I cannot imagine spending even a moment of my life apart from this one ark of salvation, constituted by Divine Providence as the Mystical Body of Christ and subject to God the Head and his Vicar on earth,” he added.
Because the idea that the church and the pope are instruments of damnation rather than of salvation is “theologically untenable,” one must inevitably conclude that “the heretical teachings handed down by the so-called ‘conciliar churches’ and ‘conciliar popes’ since Paul VI are aberrations that cast serious doubt on the legitimacy of their ecclesiastical and governing authority,” he said.
