Vatican kicks out ultra-conservative archbishop
2018, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano called for the resignation of Pope Francis. This marks the beginning of a long-standing feud, and the Vatican is now facing the consequences: The ultraconservative cleric must leave the Catholic Church.
The ultraconservative Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has been excommunicated after years of bitter disputes with Pope Francis. The exclusion of the 83-year-old Vigano was due to his "refusal to acknowledge or submit to the Pontiff," the Vatican's Doctrine of the Faith Congregation explained. This decision could lead to divisions in ultraconservative circles of the Catholic Church, where Pope Francis' papacy is critically viewed.
The Doctrine of the Faith Congregation, which bore the name Faith Congregation until 2022, stated that Vigano's public statements were "well-known expressions of rejection of... the submission of the members of the Church and the legitimacy and teaching authority of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council."
Vigano was indicted in June. The charge was suspicion of schism, denial of the Pope's legitimacy, and rejection of the Second Vatican Council. Vigano declared that he considered the accusation an "honor."
Betrayed Brother at the Inheritance?
Regarding the Second Vatican Council, held from 1962 to 1965, whose decisions are considered significant modernizations of the Catholic Church, Vigano stated that they represented an "ideological, theological, moral, and liturgical cancer." The "synodal church" of Pope Francis, he claimed, was its "necessary tumor."
Vigano, who represented the Vatican as an apostolic nuncio in Washington from 2011 to 2016, had called on Pope Francis to resign in 2018 due to his alleged ignoring and lifting of disciplinary actions against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick concerning sexual misconduct allegations for five years.
Vigano was sentenced by an Italian court in 2018 to pay 1.8 million Euros to his disabled brother, whom he is accused of defrauding in the inheritance of their family.
The Vatican's decision to excommunicate Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano could potentially escalate tensions within the international Catholic Church, given his critical stance towards Pope Francis and the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis, meanwhile, is still grappling with the fallout from Archbishop Vigano's call for his resignation in 2018 over allegations of mishandling sexual misconduct cases.
