Leading Pope Critic Says Vatican Is Putting Him on Trial

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a leading critic of Pope Francis, on Thursday, said he is being tried for “schism”.

Viganò is an Italian clergyman who has increasingly found himself at odds with Pope Francis over the direction of the Catholic Church in recent years, previously calling for the pope’s arrest. He has become a popular figure among some U.S. conservatives due to his support for former President Donald Trump and opposition to the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community in the church, as Pope Francis has sought to make the church more inclusive.

Pope Francis has been viewed as more liberal on some social issues than his predecessors and faced criticism from more conservative Catholics over his public comments supporting priests blessing same-sex couples, support for immigrants and efforts to combat climate change.

On Thursday, Viganò wrote that he is being tried for schism. He was summoned to the Palace of the Holy Office either in person or represented by a lawyer, according to a letter he uploaded online that appeared to notify him of the summons. The letter included a signature from John Joseph Kennedy, a secretary of the disciplinary section.

Schism is defined as a formal division in or separation from a church or religious body. According to that letter, he has been charged with denying the legitimacy of Pope Francis, having broken communion with him and rejecting the Second Vatican Council.

In an open letter that Viganò penned about the trial, he described it as an “extrajudicial process.”

The Vatican has not confirmed that Viganò is being tried or commented on his accusations. Newsweek reached out to the Vatican and Viganò for comment via email.

He said he views the accusations against him as an “honor” in the letter posted to his website, in which he struck a defiant tone against Pope Francis’ leadership. He said the charges confirm “the theses that I have repeatedly defended in my various addresses.”

“No Catholic worthy of the name can be in communion with this ‘Bergoglian church,’ because it acts in clear discontinuity and rupture with all the Popes of history and with the Church of Christ,” he wrote.

He wrote that he believes Catholics must question whether “it is consistent with the profession of the Catholic Faith to passively witness the systematic destruction of the Church by its leaders, just as other subversives are destroying civil society.”

Pope Francis “goes beyond his role in matters that strictly pertain to science, he wrote.

“But always and only in one direction: a direction that is diametrically opposed to what the Church has always taught,” he wrote.

In January, Viganò said Pope Francis should be arrested over a controversy surrounding a book written by a cardinal about sexuality in 1998. In 2020, he called for a “mass exorcism” over the COVID-19 pandemic. He opposed shutting down church services to prevent the spread of the virus.

The archbishop previously served as a Vatican ambassador to the U.S. for five years; he was appointed as Apostolic Nuncio in 2011 and remained in post until his retirement in 2016.