ROME — Former Vatican emissary Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has refused to obey a summons to the Vatican to face charges of schism, restating he does not recognize Pope Francis as the head of the Catholic Church.
“As I stated in my Communiqué of June 20, I do not recognize the authority of the tribunal that claims to judge me, nor of its Prefect, nor of the one who appointed him,” Archbishop Viganò said in a statement.
“This decision of mine, which is certainly painful, is not the result of haste or a spirit of rebellion; but rather is dictated by the moral necessity which, as Bishop and Successor of the Apostles, obliges me in conscience to bear witness to the Truth, that is, to God Himself, to Our Lord Jesus Christ,” he declared.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Viganò as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States in 2011 and the archbishop served in this role for five years, from 2011 to 2016.
Viganò became something of a conservative superstar in 2018, when he published an explosive report accusing Pope Francis of reinstating homosexual abuser Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to a position of prominence despite knowing of McCarrick’s serial abuse.
In his 11-page affidavit, Archbishop Viganò asserted that Pope Benedict had imposed “canonical sanctions” on Cardinal McCarrick in 2009-2010 forbidding him from traveling, celebrating Mass in public, or participating in public meetings, but that Pope Francis later lifted these sanctions and made McCarrick a close personal advisor.
“Francis is abdicating the mandate which Christ gave to Peter to confirm the brethren. Indeed, by his action he has divided them, led them into error, and encouraged the wolves to continue to tear apart the sheep of Christ’s flock,” Viganò stated, before calling on the pope to resign.
“In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal Church, he must acknowledge his mistakes and, in keeping with the proclaimed principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them,” the archbishop said.
Over the intervening years, Viganò has continued making ever more incendiary claims, leading many of his former admirers to part ways with him. He has not only rejected the authority of Pope Francis, but has also refused to accept the validity of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), an important ecumenical council highly commended by Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
In June, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, headed by Argentinean Cardinal Víctor “Tucho” Fernández, ordered the former Vatican diplomat to appear in Rome to undergo an extrajudicial penal trial for the crime of schism for having denied the legitimacy of Pope Francis and Vatican II.
The Code of Canon Law defines “schism” as “the withdrawal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church subject to him,” declaring that a schismatic “incurs a latae sententiae [automatic] excommunication.”
“I face this trial with the determination that comes from knowing that I have no reason to consider myself separate from communion with the Holy Church and with the Papacy, which I have always served with filial devotion and fidelity,” Viganò wrote in response.
“I could not conceive of a single moment of my life outside this one Ark of salvation, which Providence has constituted as the Mystical Body of Christ, in submission to its Divine Head and to His Vicar on earth,” he added.
Since it is not “theologically tenable” that the Church and the papacy are instruments of perdition rather than of salvation, he said, we must necessarily “conclude that the heterodox teachings conveyed by the so-called ‘conciliar church’ and the ‘popes of the Council’ from Paul VI onwards constitute an anomaly that seriously calls into question the legitimacy of their magisterial and governing authority.”