ROME — The Vatican’s doctrinal office has found former papal nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò guilty of “schism,” declaring him excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

Viganò’s “public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council are well known,” Vatican statement reads.

“At the conclusion of the penal process, the Most Reverend Carlo Maria Viganò was found guilty of the reserved delict of schism, it states, for which the Vatican “declared the latae sententiae excommunication.”

Excommunication is the Catholic Church’s most severe penalty, imposed for particularly grave sins. The excommunicated person no longer belongs to the Church and is forbidden from receiving the sacraments.

Archbishop Viganò has been a thorn in the side of Pope Francis ever since he released a damning report in 2018 accusing the pontiff of enabling serial homosexual abuser (Cardinal) Theodore McCarrick and naming a series of other accomplices who had covered up for the now disgraced former cardinal.

Drawing from knowledge obtained over his years of diplomatic work for the Holy See, Viganò decried a “conspiracy of silence” in the McCarrick case, adding that “the corruption has reached the very top of the Church’s hierarchy.”

In the text, Viganò asserts that he personally informed Pope Francis of McCarrick’s crimes on June 23, 2013, and yet the pope “continued to cover for him” and “made him his trusted counselor.”

In his report, Viganò also criticized what he called “the deviated wing of the Society of Jesus [Jesuits],” which has unfortunately become “a majority.”

Among these is Father James Martin, S.J., Viganò stated, a “well-known activist who promotes the LGBT agenda, chosen to corrupt the young people who will soon gather in Dublin for the World Meeting of Families.”

In response to the Vatican verdict Friday, Viganò acknowledged having received the decree laying out his conviction, but added that it only serves to confirm “the Catholic Faith that I fully profess.”

“I say to my brother Bishops: ‘If you are silent, the stones will cry out’ (Lk 19:40),” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).