In September 2019, returning from a visit to Africa, Pope Francis reflected on the flight home to Rome on the tensions that were tearing at the unity of the Church. Threat of schism “I pray that there will be no schism,” the Pope told the Vatican press corps, “but I am not afraid.” Since then, Read more
Mel Gibson, the controversial actor and director, is publicly spporting excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. Gibson wrote a letter addressed to Viganò on the blog of traditionalist publicist Aldo Maria Valli. In his letter Gibson referred to Pope Francis by his birth name, Jorge Bergoglio, and commended Viganò as a “courageous hero”. “I’m sure you Read more
Will there be a Viganò schism? Surely not a schism like the ones in the handbooks of Church history. But news that the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had summoned Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò to answer to charges of schism reveals something of this Catholic moment and Catholic culture. From 2011-2016, Read more
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has been found guilty of schism and excommunicated, the Vatican’s doctrinal office says. He was the papal nuncio in Washington from 2011-2016. In 2018 Viganò reportedly hid after alleging Pope Francis and other senior clerics knew of US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual misconduct for years and did nothing about it. He Read more
Outspoken papal critic Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, announced Thursday (June 20) in a defiant social media post that he had been summoned to the Vatican to answer charges of having committed the crime of schism. Canonical criminal trial The Vatican’s Department for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, asked that Read more
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has formally charged Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganó with schism. This could lead to his excommunication and removal from the clerical state. On 20th May, senior officers of the Vatican’s Dicastery opened an extrajudicial penal trial against Viganó. The decree states that this process was deemed appropriate Read more
It’s no secret that the Roman Catholic Church is deeply divided right now, perhaps as much as it’s ever been in the six decades since the end of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The fractures are most obvious on social media where even priests, bishops and cardinals preach from cyber pulpits all along the theological Read more
When Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the disgraced former papal nuncio to the United States, released an unprecedented and soon discredited letter in 2018 alleging Pope Francis’ complicity in covering up for former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s history of abuse, San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone came to Viganò’s defence. Despite Viganò’s shocking call for Pope Francis’ resignation, Read more
Cardinal Robert Sarah is implicated in a petition signed by Catholic conservatives claiming the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is an “overhyped pretext to deprive the faithful of Mass and impose a new world order”. Sarah (pictured), is head of the Vatican’s liturgy office and is supposedly the highest-ranking signatory. However, he claims he never signed the Read more
Three US bishops are “devout schismatics” who try to diminish the authority of Pope Francis, says a Church historian. “They are devout in the sense that they publicly display their preference for a traditionalist Church and its devotions, such as the rosary. “They are schismatics because they openly promote the undermining of the bishop of Read more