by WorldTribune Staff, July 7, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
Conservative firebrand Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has been excommunicated by the Vatican.
One of the leading critics of liberal Pope Francis, Vigano was accused of a schism. According to Roman Catholic canon law, a schismatic is a baptized person who, though continuing to identify as a Christian, refuses submission to the pope or fellowship with members of the church.
On several occasions in recent years, Vigano declared that he did not recognize the legitimacy of Pope Francis or of the Second Vatican Council.
Related: Bishop Vigano: ‘Recognize the total unworthiness of Joe Biden to hold an institutional position’, April 1, 2024
A press release issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith states:
“On 4 July 2024, the Congress of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith met to conclude the extrajudicial penal process referred to in canon 1720 CIC against the Most Reverend Carlo Maria Vigano, titular Archbishop of Ulpiana, accused of the reserved delict of schism (canons 751 and 1364 CIC; art. 2 SST).”
The press released continues: “His 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. At the conclusion of the penal process, the Most Reverend Carlo Maria Viganò was found guilty of the reserved delict of schism.”
In a June 28 statement on social media, Vigano accused Francis of “heresy and schism” over the pope’s promotion of the Covid injections and his overseeing of the 2018 Vatican-China deal on the appointment of bishops.
Vigano also said he has “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. I maintain that the errors and heresies to which [Francis] adhered before, during, and after his election, along with the intention he held in his apparent acceptance of the papacy, render his elevation to the throne null and void.”
Vigano, who has been in hiding for years, responded to the charges against him in a June 21 social media post saying that he had not sent any materials in his defense to the Vatican, noting that he did not recognize the authority of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “nor that of its prefect, nor that of the person who appointed him.”
Viganò’s excommunication can only be lifted by the Apostolic See.