Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former papal nuncio to the United States, was summoned to the Vatican after being charged with the canonical crime of schism and of having denied the legitimacy of Pope Francis and Vatican II.
Viagno said he considers the charges against him to be an "honor."
Vigano on Thursday published images of his citation and said he assumes that his punishment has already been determined, given that the process is extrajudicial.
"I believe that the very wording of the charges confirms the theses that I have repeatedly defended in my various addresses," Vigano said in his statement. "It is no coincidence that the accusation against me concerns the questioning of the legitimacy of Jorge Mario Bergoglio [Pope Francis] and the rejection of Vatican II."
Vigano, the papal envoy in Washington from 2011-16, did not say if he attended or was represented at the hearing, Reuters reported.
In 2018, Vigano went into hiding after conservative media sources published his 11-page statement calling on the pope to resign and accusing him for knowing about an American cardinal's sexual misconduct but doing nothing about it. The Vatican rejected the claims.
In its summons Thursday, the Vatican warned Vigano that he would be judged in his absence if he did not appear for the hearing. He could face removal from religious office or be banned from acting as a minister.
"Archbishop Vigano has taken some attitudes and some actions for which he must answer," Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, was quoted as saying in a report on the Vatican News website, Reuters reported.
In the past, Italian media reported that the archbishop had become angry because former Pope Benedict never made him a cardinal and because Francis had blocked him from advancing further in the church.
According to the decree of citation sent to Vigano, the archbishop is accused of making "public statements resulting in a denial of the elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church: denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis, breaking of communion with him, and rejection of the Vatican Council II."
Vigano remained defiant in his statement Thursday, saying that he does "repudiate, reject, and condemn the scandals, errors, and heresies of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who manifests an absolutely tyrannical management of power, exercised against the purpose that legitimizes Authority in the Church: an authority that is vicarious of that of Christ, and as such must obey Him alone."
Vigano added that is not a coincidence that the accusations concern his questioning about the pope and rejecting Vatican II and that he was informed about the extrajudicial penal trial against him through a "simple email."
The archbishop argued in his statement that it is necessary for the church and its clergy to ask themselves if it is consistent with their faith to "passively witness the systematic destruction of the Church by its leaders."
Vigano said Pope Francis, authorizes the blessing of same-sex couples and "imposes on the faithful the acceptance of homosexualism" while covering up the scandals of his proteges and promoting them "to the highest positions of responsibility."
Viganò further accused the pope of going "beyond his role" in matters of science, but in a direction that is "diametrically opposed to what the Church has always taught."
"Wherever governments at the service of the World Economic Forum have introduced or extended abortion, promoted vice, legitimized homosexual unions or gender transition, encouraged euthanasia, and tolerated the persecution of Catholics, not a word has been spent in defense of the Faith or Morals that are threatened," Vigano wrote.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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