The 83-year-old ultra-conservative Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, known for his calls for Pope Francis to resign, has been found guilty of schism by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The verdict was announced following a trial that began last month.
The Dicastery’s statement highlighted Vigano’s public refusal to recognize and submit to the authority of Pope Francis, his rejection of communion with Church members under the pope, and his denial of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council. “At the conclusion of the penal process, the Most Reverend Carlo Maria Vigano was found guilty of the reserved delict of schism,” the statement read, adding that his punishment is excommunication in accordance with canon law.
As an excommunicated individual, Vigano is prohibited from administering and receiving the sacraments and from exercising ecclesiastical functions.
Vigano, who served as the Vatican’s papal envoy to the United States from 2011 to 2016, has been an outspoken critic of Pope Francis, even accusing him of heresy. Last month, after being summoned by the Dicastery, Vigano posted on X, “I regard the accusations against me as an honour.”
In a lengthy declaration, Vigano criticized Pope Francis’s policies, including his support for undocumented migrants, his environmental encyclicals, and his authorization of blessings for same-sex couples. He accused Francis of promoting allies and stated, “I accuse Jorge Mario Bergoglio of heresy and schism, and I ask that he be judged as a heretic and schismatic and removed from the Throne which he has unworthily occupied for over eleven years.”
Vigano has strong support from traditionalist factions within the Church, particularly in the United States, who oppose Francis’s progressive moves on issues such as the Latin Mass and welcoming LGBTQ individuals into the Church. These factions have at times questioned Francis’s legitimacy as the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, raising fears of a potential rupture within the Church.
In 2018, Vigano made headlines by calling for Francis’s resignation, accusing the pope of mishandling sexual abuse cases, particularly of protecting former American cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked in 2019 for sexual abuse.
Vigano also stirred controversy in 2019 with a letter of support for then-US President Donald Trump, criticizing Covid pandemic confinement measures and defending a crackdown on rioters.
In a rare move last November, Pope Francis dismissed US Bishop Joseph Strickland, a prominent conservative critic of his papacy, from his Tyler, Texas diocese.
