The following is a statement made by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò regarding the ongoing theological discussion regarding Pope Francis’s and the papacy’s status. This statement is an address that Msgr. Vigano prepared in order to be given at the Catholic Identity Conference in Pittsburgh on October 1, 2023. Please note that the address titled “Vitium Consensus” was deleted at the last minute from the roster.
“It is unfortunate that, in the current climate of fear within the Church, the free exchange of ideas and viewpoints is no longer tolerated. Let us pray for the unity of the church, that unity which can only be grounded in the Truth, who is Jesus Christ.“
This is, in many respects, Vigano’s most scathing critique to date. Pope Francis does not and never did have the intention of leading the Catholic Church, according to His Excellency, considering the destruction “Jorge Mario Bergoglio” caused to the entire Church as a result of his acceptance of the “cancer” of Vatican II and the part the Saint Gallen mafia played in the 2013 conclave. Instead, he concealed his goals from voters in order to use the papacy’s power to weaken the Church and turn it into the “handmaid” of the New World Order.
Vigano remarked: “I believe instead that his acceptance of the papacy is invalidated because he considers the papacy something other than what it is. I would like us to take seriously … the possibility that Bergoglio intended to obtain the election by means of fraud and that he intended to abuse the authority of the Roman Pontiff in order to do the exact opposite of what Jesus Christ gave a mandate to Saint Peter.”
The Archbishop also declares his disagreement with Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s assertion that Francis is the pope because of the “universal acceptance” of his pontificate. His Excellency bases his case on the historical example of the fourteenth-century Clement VII. His objective in releasing the letter is to “get to the root of the question” and identify a shared beginning point that can result in a “remedy [to] the disconcerting, scandalous presence of a pope who presents himself with ostentatious arrogance as inimicus Ecclesiae, and who acts and speaks as such,” even though he acknowledges that the current situation is “humanly irremediable.”
Since the address is long, I have divided it into a short series of publications.
“Allow me to greet and thank the organizers of the Catholic Identity Conference and all who are taking part. In a moment of great confusion it is important to clarify what is happening, even by comparing different positions. That’s why I am grateful to my friend Michael Matt for giving me the opportunity to share some thoughts with you.
In this speech I will not try to give answers, but to pose a question that can no longer be postponed, so that we Bishops, the clergy, and the faithful can look clearly at the very serious apostasy present as a completely unprecedented fact, one that cannot be resolved, in my opinion, by resorting to our usual categories of judgment and action.
THE EVIDENCE OF THE “BERGOGLIO PROBLEM”
The proliferation of declarations and behaviors completely foreign to what is expected of a Pope – and indeed in contrast with the Faith and Morality of which the Papacy is the guardian – has led many of the faithful and an increasingly large number of Bishops to take note of something that until some time ago seemed unheard of: the Throne of Peter is occupied by a person who abuses his power, using it for the opposite purpose to that for which Our Lord instituted it.
Some say that Jorge Mario Bergoglio is manifestly heretical in doctrinal questions, others that he is tyrannical in matters of government, still others consider his election invalid because of the multiple anomalies of the resignation of Benedict XVI and the election of the one who took his place. These opinions – more or less supported by evidence or the result of speculations that cannot always be shared – nevertheless confirm a reality that is now incontestable. And it is this reality, in my opinion, that constitutes a common starting point in trying to remedy the disconcerting, scandalous presence of a Pope who presents himself with ostentatious arrogance as inimicus Ecclesiæ, and who acts and speaks as such. An enemy who, precisely because he occupies the Throne of Peter and abuses papal authority, is capable of inflicting a terrible and disastrous blow, such as no external enemy in the entire history of the Church has ever been able to cause. The worst persecutors of Christians, the fiercest adherents of the Masonic Lodges, and the most unrestrained heresiarchs have never before succeeded, in such a short time and with such effectiveness, in devastating the Lord’s vineyard, scandalizing the faithful, disgusting the Ministers, discrediting its authority and authoritativeness before the world, and demolishing the Magisterium, Faith, Morals, Liturgy, and discipline.
Inimicus Ecclesiæ, not only with respect to the members of the Mystical Body – which he despises, ridicules (he never ceases to launch poisonous epithets against it), persecutes, and strikes; but also with respect to the Head of the Mystical Body, Jesus Christ: whose authority is exercised by Bergoglio no longer in a vicarious way, which would therefore be in necessary and dutiful consistency with the Depositum Fidei, but rather in a self-referential and thus tyrannical way. The authority of the Roman Pontiff is in fact derived from the Supreme Authority of Christ, in which it participates, always within the boundaries and scope of the goals which the Divine Founder has established once and for all, and which no human power can change.
The evidence of Bergoglio’s alienity to the office he holds is certainly a painful and very serious fact; but becoming aware of this reality is the indispensable premise for remedying an unsustainable and disastrous situation.”
Archbishop Vigano’s Vitium Consensus – Pope Francis is not the pope (1)
The following is a statement made by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò regarding the ongoing theological discussion regarding Pope Francis’s and the papacy’s status. This statement is an address that Msgr. Vigano prepared in order to be given at the Catholic Identity Conference in Pittsburgh on October 1, 2023. Please note that the address titled “Vitium Consensus” was deleted at the last minute from the roster.
“It is unfortunate that, in the current climate of fear within the Church, the free exchange of ideas and viewpoints is no longer tolerated. Let us pray for the unity of the church, that unity which can only be grounded in the Truth, who is Jesus Christ.“
This is, in many respects, Vigano’s most scathing critique to date. Pope Francis does not and never did have the intention of leading the Catholic Church, according to His Excellency, considering the destruction “Jorge Mario Bergoglio” caused to the entire Church as a result of his acceptance of the “cancer” of Vatican II and the part the Saint Gallen mafia played in the 2013 conclave. Instead, he concealed his goals from voters in order to use the papacy’s power to weaken the Church and turn it into the “handmaid” of the New World Order.
Vigano remarked: “I believe instead that his acceptance of the papacy is invalidated because he considers the papacy something other than what it is. I would like us to take seriously … the possibility that Bergoglio intended to obtain the election by means of fraud and that he intended to abuse the authority of the Roman Pontiff in order to do the exact opposite of what Jesus Christ gave a mandate to Saint Peter.”
The Archbishop also declares his disagreement with Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s assertion that Francis is the pope because of the “universal acceptance” of his pontificate. His Excellency bases his case on the historical example of the fourteenth-century Clement VII. His objective in releasing the letter is to “get to the root of the question” and identify a shared beginning point that can result in a “remedy [to] the disconcerting, scandalous presence of a pope who presents himself with ostentatious arrogance as inimicus Ecclesiae, and who acts and speaks as such,” even though he acknowledges that the current situation is “humanly irremediable.”
Since the address is long, I have divided it into a short series of publications.
“Allow me to greet and thank the organizers of the Catholic Identity Conference and all who are taking part. In a moment of great confusion it is important to clarify what is happening, even by comparing different positions. That’s why I am grateful to my friend Michael Matt for giving me the opportunity to share some thoughts with you.
In this speech I will not try to give answers, but to pose a question that can no longer be postponed, so that we Bishops, the clergy, and the faithful can look clearly at the very serious apostasy present as a completely unprecedented fact, one that cannot be resolved, in my opinion, by resorting to our usual categories of judgment and action.
THE EVIDENCE OF THE “BERGOGLIO PROBLEM”
The proliferation of declarations and behaviors completely foreign to what is expected of a Pope – and indeed in contrast with the Faith and Morality of which the Papacy is the guardian – has led many of the faithful and an increasingly large number of Bishops to take note of something that until some time ago seemed unheard of: the Throne of Peter is occupied by a person who abuses his power, using it for the opposite purpose to that for which Our Lord instituted it.
Some say that Jorge Mario Bergoglio is manifestly heretical in doctrinal questions, others that he is tyrannical in matters of government, still others consider his election invalid because of the multiple anomalies of the resignation of Benedict XVI and the election of the one who took his place. These opinions – more or less supported by evidence or the result of speculations that cannot always be shared – nevertheless confirm a reality that is now incontestable. And it is this reality, in my opinion, that constitutes a common starting point in trying to remedy the disconcerting, scandalous presence of a Pope who presents himself with ostentatious arrogance as inimicus Ecclesiæ, and who acts and speaks as such. An enemy who, precisely because he occupies the Throne of Peter and abuses papal authority, is capable of inflicting a terrible and disastrous blow, such as no external enemy in the entire history of the Church has ever been able to cause. The worst persecutors of Christians, the fiercest adherents of the Masonic Lodges, and the most unrestrained heresiarchs have never before succeeded, in such a short time and with such effectiveness, in devastating the Lord’s vineyard, scandalizing the faithful, disgusting the Ministers, discrediting its authority and authoritativeness before the world, and demolishing the Magisterium, Faith, Morals, Liturgy, and discipline.
Inimicus Ecclesiæ, not only with respect to the members of the Mystical Body – which he despises, ridicules (he never ceases to launch poisonous epithets against it), persecutes, and strikes; but also with respect to the Head of the Mystical Body, Jesus Christ: whose authority is exercised by Bergoglio no longer in a vicarious way, which would therefore be in necessary and dutiful consistency with the Depositum Fidei, but rather in a self-referential and thus tyrannical way. The authority of the Roman Pontiff is in fact derived from the Supreme Authority of Christ, in which it participates, always within the boundaries and scope of the goals which the Divine Founder has established once and for all, and which no human power can change.
The evidence of Bergoglio’s alienity to the office he holds is certainly a painful and very serious fact; but becoming aware of this reality is the indispensable premise for remedying an unsustainable and disastrous situation.”