Vatican throws out ultra-conservative archbishop
2018, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano called for the resignation of Pope Francis. This marks the beginning of a long-lasting feud, and now the Vatican is taking consequences: The ultraconservative cleric must leave the Catholic Church.
The ultraconservative Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has been excommunicated after years of sharp disputes with Pope Francis. The exclusion of the 83-year-old Vigano was due to his "refusal to acknowledge or submit to the Pope," explained the Vatican's Doctrine of the Faith. This decision could lead to controversies in ultraconservative circles of the Catholic Church, where Pope Francis' pontificate is critically observed.
The Doctrine of the Faith, which bore the name Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith until 2022, stated that Vigano's "public statements are well-known, which show the rejection (...) of communion with the members of the Church and the legitimacy and teaching authority of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council."
Vigano was charged in June. The accusation 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 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, whose decrees are considered significant modernization of the Catholic Church, Vigano stated that these represented an "ideological, theological, moral, and liturgical cancer." The "synodal Church" of Pope Francis, he added, was his "necessary tumor."
Vigano, who represented the Vatican as the apostolic nuncio in Washington from 2011 to 2016, had called for Pope Francis' resignation in 2018 due to his alleged five-year long ignoring and lifting of disciplinary actions against then US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick regarding sexual misconduct allegations.
Vigano was sentenced by an Italian court in 2018 to pay 1.8 million Euros to his disabled brother, whom he allegedly defrauded in the inheritance of their family.
Despite facing legal consequences for defrauding his disabled brother in an inheritance dispute, Vatican officials moved forward with excommunicating Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano due to his ongoing disputes with Pope Francis and his criticism of the Second Vatican Council within the International Catholic Church. This decision by the Vatican's Doctrine of the Faith has sparked tension within ultraconservative circles of the Catholic Church, where Pope Francis' leadership is frequently criticized.
