Vatican Secretary of State Pietro
Parolin has said that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò must answer
for his actions after the Holy See's former Apostolic Nuncio to
the United States announced he faces a trial before the
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith for the canonical crime
of schism.
The 83-year-old ultra conservative is a big critic of the
Argentine pontiff.
In 2018 he called on Francis to resign, saying he was part of a
"cover-up" involving former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who the
pope subsequently defrocked over sexual-assault allegations.
Viganò is also one of the Catholic conservatives to have
criticised Francis for opening up to gays and remarried divorcés
while bemoaning unfettered capitalism and climate change.
In letters that went public in the Vatileaks scandal, Vigano
also said he was moved from a previous role as governor of the
Vatican city state for clamping down on corruption.
"Archbishop Viganò has taken some attitudes and some actions for
which he must answer," Parolin told reporters.
"I am very sorry because I always appreciated him as a great
worker, very faithful to the Holy See, someone who was, in a
certain sense, also an example.
"When he was apostolic nuncio he did good work.
"I don't know what happened".
On Thursday Viganò announced via X that he faces an
"extrajudicial penal process" for public statements which result
in a denial of the elements necessary to maintain communion with
the Catholic Church; denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis; a
rupture of communion with him; and rejection of the Second
Vatican Council.
"I consider the accusations against me an honour," Viganò said,
describing the Second Vatican Council as an "ideological,
theological, moral, and liturgical cancer," of which "the
Synodal Church" is a "metastasis."
Vatican Two (1962-1965) ushered in liberal reforms in the
Church.
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