Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò was summoned to appear at the Vatican on Thursday, to face charges of schism.
The former papal diplomat and consummate Vatican Insider-turned-conspiracy-theorist almost triumphantly announced the development over social media. Official media channels of the Vatican later picked up Viganò’s announcement.
A lot of what Viganò has said and done over the past several years has been utterly unhinged, but being looney-tunes is not eo ipso a crime. It is difficult to fathom, however, how some of what he has done wasn’t criminal according to Church law.
Viganò has repeatedly expressed doubt that Francis is the legitimate pope. He has said the Vatican Council II taught heresy (at least in nuce). Viganò has been accused of illicitly ordaining at least one priest—certainly a crime and an act reeking of schism if it is not itself a schismatic act—and has all but declared in ipsissima verba that the sees of both Rome and Constantinople are vacant.
It is actually pretty hard to commit schism—a lot harder than the folks seem to think, who brandish and bandy the term about—but if those things aren’t schism, then pretty much nothing is or could be.
So, what Viganò was slated to get on Thursday was a long time coming.
Still, it is something of a surprise.
Viganò became famous for publishing a spectacular J’accuse! against Pope Francis et al. in August of 2018, in which he detailed a systematic coverup of Theodore Edward “Uncle Ted” McCarrick’s depraved sexual misconduct over twenty years involving three popes and three Secretaries of State along with several other Vatican officials of some rank.
“The McCarrick affair,” reads the official story on the Vatican News website, “…was fully clarified by the Holy See with the publication of a detailed report in November 2020 that comprehensively refutes the Archbishop.”
That claim will raise some eyebrows and may fairly strike candid observers as protesting too much, but one may hardly fault the official media outlet for toeing the party line.
Keen observers will note and remember that Viganò’s social media announcement—and the date on which the Vatican summons demanded Viganò appear—happens to be the sixth anniversary of the day news broke that Uncle Ted had been charged with child sexual abuse.
In any case, the justice Viganò faces is not for anything connected to McCarrick, even though Viganò might have been charged with libel and slander (not to mention violation of pontifical secret) over that episode and its sequels.
If anything, Viganò’s involvement in l’Affaire McCarrick is the chief reason he went so long without facing any official canonical consequences for his schismatic behavior.
“Never interrupt an enemy while he’s making a mistake,” Bonaparte was fond of saying. “Lord, make my enemies ridiculous,” prayed Voltaire. “Give ‘em rope,” runs the old American homespun, “an’ let the fella hang himself.” The Vatican has done that.
“I consider the accusations against me an honor,” Viganò said in a statement on his openly schismatic official website. “It is no coincidence that the accusation against me concerns the questioning of the legitimacy of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and the rejection of Vatican II,” Viganò also said. “[T]he Council,” Viganò said, “represents the ideological, theological, moral, and liturgical cancer of which the Bergoglian ‘synodal church’ is the necessary metastasis.”
That’s nasty enough, and pretty thoroughly deranged, but even that may not be perfectly damning.
“I am honored not to have – and indeed I do not want – any ecclesial communion with [Bergoglio—sic—and his circle],” Viganò also said in his statement. “[T]heirs is a lobby, which conceals its complicity with the masters of the world in order to deceive many souls and prevent any resistance against the establishment of the Kingdom of the Antichrist.”
That, on its own, means there’s at least a case to answer.
The case against Viganò, in short, is pretty much one of res ipsa loquitur: The thing speaks for itself.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith is handling the matter, apparently by an expedited process rather than a full judicial trial. That is something for which the law allows, particularly when the facts of a case are not in dispute.
That means the Vatican has a tremendous opportunity, but also runs a serious risk.
There is no reason stemming from the case against Viganò itself, for which the Vatican ought not conduct its penal process publicly and in the light of day. There is every reason to try Viganò in the open, and then not only because it would at least marginally protect against Viganò’s inevitable attempt to paint himself as a martyr.
More broadly and generally: Justice must be seen to be done.
If the Vatican were to make the Viganò process meaningfully public—precisely no one is holding breath for that—it would prove not only in principle but in fact that the Holy See is capable of delivering ecclesiastical justice in the name of the pope and the whole worldwide body of the faithful, in a manner that lets people see it working without fear or favor.
Pope Francis and the Vatican have lots of reasons not to let that cat out of the bag, the biggest one these days probably being Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik (olim SJ), the infamous former celebrity artist accused of sexually, psychologically, and spiritually abusing dozens of victims—most of them women religious—over decades, right under the noses of his erstwhile Jesuit superiors (in Rome and his native Slovenia) and those of three popes and several other Vatican officials, some of them very senior.
Msgr. John Kennedy, chief of the disciplinary section at the DDF, apparently signed the decree summoning Viganò. Kennedy also referred recently to the Rupnik business as a “delicate” matter.
“[T]here is the aspect of the allegations against him,” Kennedy told journalists at a conference on the abuse crisis, “there is the aspect of the victims, there is the aspect of the impact on the Church, so it’s delicate.”
Note especially that last item—the impact on the Church—among the things that make the Rupnik Affair a delicate matter.
Coming clean about the Five Ws of the Rupnik Affair will certainly cost several senior churchmen their reputations. There would be surprises, many of them likely very unpleasant.
There will be in any case.
The only question is whether they will come from a Vatican finally ready to come clean and make good on its promises of Responsibility Accountability Transparency—the threefold watchword of the Francis pontificate, long since become a buzzword, cruel and macabre—or whether they will come from reporters who pry them from those who would keep them.
The plain, simple fact of the matter is this: Justice at Star Chamber is impossible.
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How exactly was the ridiculous, throw JPII, Benedict, and Vigano under the bus, sham “report” of November 2020, that was based on events initiated by Vigano’s accusations, where Vigano was accessible but not interviewed, in any way “detailed” and “fully clarified?”
My brothers and sisters in Jesus, please note the following direction from the the most blessed and holy Saint Francis de Sales:
“The declared enemies of God and His Church, heretics and schismatics, must be criticized as much as possible, as long as truth is not denied. It is a work of charity to shout: “Here is the wolf! when it enters the flock or anywhere else.”
Pray tell, my brothers and sisters, is it because the Archbishop Vigano is crying we have a wolf in the inner sanctuary of Holy Mother Church that attempts are now being made to excommunicate him? The same excommunication that St. John The Baptist incurred from Herod and the same excommunication that our Blessed Lord and Savior incurred by the Jewish papacy of His time? Mr. Alteri’s assessment is simply too shallow and does not take in to account the powerful evil forces that are at work here to stymie what the holy St. Francis de Sales saw as an essential duty that Archbishop Vigano is exercising! In fact, all the bishops worldwide should be hollering even louder that there are not one but many “WOLVES” in sheeps clothing inside the Vatican.
Come Lord Jesus Christ As Lord and Savior!!
Dear ‘JCALAS’ – you speak the plain truth.
Can we please all pray & sing out loud: “Let GOD arise; His enemies be scattered!”
The Truth is that we can know through both Faith and reason, that Jorge Bergoglio, by promoting sexual sin in Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, is not a True Vicar of Christ.
Shame on those who refuse to follow Christ because they desire , like Jorge Bergoglio, to promote sexual sin in Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church. The counterfeit anti Christ church is being illuminated by The True Church of Christ, as we speak.
Woe to those who call evil Good.
“Penance, Penance, Penance.”
At the heart of Liberty Is Christ, “4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved. “Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.” “Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.” “For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”
It must be nice to have formed your own church where you are the Pope, the Magisterium, the Apostolic Signatura, and every other institution of the church.
Wow, that was weird. How could John the Baptist be excommunicated by Herod? Do you have the faintest idea what you are saying? It makes no sense. Nor was Jesus “excommunicated” by a “Jewish papacy” – a thing that exists only in your mind. I have heard some pretty ridiculous attempts to defend Vigano (for whom there is no defense). But this really takes the cake.
Now do James Martin SJ. That this will not transpire validates all doubts about Pope Francis and his commitment to Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the perennial Magisterium.
The transgressions of the Archbishop and the priest are very different and are not comparable. Heresy demands exclusion while untoward behavior begs discipline. There is no doubt that the priest in question needs to be silenced and disciplined, but I doubt that he’s yet guilty of heresy.
Dear James Connor: “There is no doubt that the priest in question needs to be silenced and disciplined, . .”
Freemason friends say such silencing of truth spoken by juniors is par-for-the-course in their lodges. Certainly, it’s basic in communist countries & other dictatorships. But it is ungodly so to do . . .
Check out: 1 Esdras: “GREAT IS TRUTH & MIGHTY ABOVE ALL THINGS!”
Always in the love of The Lamb; blessings from marty
ahhaah…you wish you were so followed and listened too..
BOTH Vigano and James Martin can be schismatics and outlaws. It does not need to be one or the other.
“Lord, make my enemies ridiculous,” prayed Voltaire. “
Was that an actual prayer of supplication? Or some implicit sarcasm from a grossly overrated character who was best forgotten?
I find it odd that one of great egomaniacal quotes of a libertine sworn enemy of the Church is quoted here on questions of episcopal authority submission to authority.
In any case, regardless of Vigano’s sensitivities, my suspicion is that the timing is more related to the American election than any anniversary of McCarrick. Hence I was amused by Biden’s recent invasion of the Pope’s “personal space”.
I know people that have left the Church because Pope Francis, I know of none that have left because of Vigano. His opinion that Francis is a subversive heretic is common.
Since the Pope has tolerated more from worse, another example of his arbitrary and capricious view of ecclesial propriety.
We clearly did not pray hard enough for Benedict to not flee the flock. It will take decades, if not centuries to remove the Francine legacy of making “a mess”.
Prior to his election to the Papacy, by promoting sexual sin, whose authority did Jorge Bergoglio subject himself to? Certainly not Christ’s. There is a reason that nowhere in The Deposit of Faith does Christ reveal that we, who are followers of The Christ, should promote sexual sin. Sexual sin is devoid of Love.
The ones who adore Vigano actually left the Catholic church a long time ago. They sit in their bubble, worshipping Lefebvre as a god, and the wackiness of Vigano is testament to the fact that we will always have wackos sitting on the fringes of the church, howling like baboons and throwing rocks at the church. Francis is a bad pope, but some hysterical people simply have to go overboard and invent conspiracy theories, pretend he is not really the pope etc. At this point, everyone is a bit tired of their clown like antics, and people realize their essentially protestant nature.
Unfortunately Christopher, the only thing Vigano can truly be accused of is speaking the truth.
If that is the case, then we must conclude that “ truth” lies OUTSIDE of the Church!
Since when has Vigano been outside the church and who put him there?
No, The Truth lies in Christ. It is a man elected to the Papacy who sits in contradiction to Christ and His Church, who in denying The Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and God’s Universal Call To Holiness, in order to accommodate the engaging in or affirmation of certain sexual acts which are physically, psychologically, spiritually, emotionally and morally harmful, who opposes Christ and His One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church.
“It is a sin to accommodate an occasion of sin and cooperate with at which is evil.”
Furthermore, any cardinal who voted to have a man elected to the Papacy with full knowledge that prior to his election to the Papacy, Jorge Bergoglio condoned the accommodation of sexual sin in Christ’s Church, ipso facto, like Jorge Bergoglio, excommunicated himself from The One Body Of Christ.
“Canon 188 §4 states that among the actions which automatically (ipso facto) cause any cleric to lose his office, even without any declaration on the part of a superior, is that of “defect[ing] publicly from the Catholic faith” .
Thanks, dear ND: Indeed, it is that straight-forward. Not complex at all.
Why then do the blind keep following the blind, to fall into the pit together?
Partly because it suited our laziness to deify authoritarian structures. Most of those holding administrative roles in the Church have ceased to understand they are servants of the people of God, on behalf of The Eternal Word of God.
As Anna the Ikonist discerned: they have largely become a coven of narcissists.
They’re ignoring 1 Corinthians 12:28, which reminds them that administration is one of the least of the gifts in the Church.
The Apostolic & the Prophetic are appointed as the lead gifts. Thanks be to GOD, that in the columns of Catholic World Report we still see those Life-giving gifts being used on behalf of all of the Church.
If you think Vigano speaks the truth, that says more about what you think is the “truth” than anything else.
“So, what Viganò was slated to get on Thursday was a long time coming” (Chris Altieri). [T]heirs is a lobby, which conceals its complicity with the masters of the world in order to deceive many souls and prevent any resistance against the establishment of the Kingdom of the Antichrist” (Archbishop Carlo Viganò as cited by Altieri).
Two positions diametrically opposed by two men devoted to the Church. Viganò honored to be accused, Altieri convinced the case is closed. Journalist Altieri says the Vatican report on Viganò’s allegation of Pope Francis’ prior knowledge of the McCarrick dossier conclusively disproves the allegation. The report describes the bishop of Metuchen contacting then nuncio Viganò of a priest’s allegations of his [the bishop’s] complicity with McCarrick of sexual abuse and a non liability settlement. Viganò notified Cardinal Ouellet, head of the dicastery with primary competence over the discipline of bishops, who did not deem it necessary to raise with Pope Francis issues related to McCarrick or to provide the Pope with any memorandum or other writing regarding McCarrick. Cardinal Ouellet considered the 2008 [cardinal] Re [prior] letter a strong recommendation issued to McCarrick out of caution in light of old and unproven allegations. And that he would follow suit [Ouellet claimed his request to Viganò for further investigation was unanswered].
What is surprising is the testimony offered by Archbishop Giovanni Becciu, who was serving as Substitute in the Secretariat of State since his appointment by Benedict XVI. “He told Pope Francis that Nuncio Montalvo had appeared shocked when he learned of the nomination to Washington because Montalvo had excluded McCarrick from the terna after receiving letters reporting allegations made by others of McCarrick’s prior immoral conduct with a seminarian. Pope Francis remembered a brief exchange with Substitute Becciu regarding McCarrick’s prior immoral conduct with a seminarian. He [Pope Francis] recalled Archbishop Becciu asking rhetorically, ‘But what is McCarrick doing here? He should not be coming around.’ Pope Francis stated that Becciu did not elaborate on what the prior indications related to, other than to say that it ‘was something from the distant past’ that had been ‘gossiped about’ and that Becciu had heard about while he was in the Nunciature in the United States [notation 1226]. Pope Francis recalled having supposed that any allegations against McCarrick already in existence in 2000 must have been deemed without foundation because ‘John Paul II was a man so morally strict, of such moral rectitude, that he would never have permitted a rotten candidacy to move forward’” (REPORT ON THE HOLY SEE’S INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND DECISION-MAKING RELATED TO FORMER CARDINAL THEODORE EDGAR MCCARRICK [1930 TO 2017]. Prepared by the Secretariat of State of the Holy See Vatican City State 10 November 2020).
From a disinterested perspective one would likely come to an opinion that you have two men, devoted to the Church, one a churchman concerned with the dark shadow obscuring the truth of the faith, the other an honest journalist whose love for the Church expects sterling honesty and exactitude when charges are made against the Church. Where the truth lies may unfold in time.
“Whose love for the Church expects sterling honesty and exactitude when charges are made against the Church”. It comes down to whether one is prepared to receive the slings and arrows, the expected retribution, that justice may be served. Has Archbishop Viganò crossed the line separating the faithful from the schismatic. A position of error must be held adamantly and persistently. When he was accused of refuting the legitimacy of Vat II he drew back and claimed his refutation was against those who hijacked that Council for their own progressive motives.
Insofar as the Archbishop ordaining priests, he has, as all bishops the faculty to ordain. Bishops have done this secretly throughout the ages when under persecution. Canon law requires the bishop possesses lawful faculties in order to ordain lawfully. That the ordained be for the Catholic Church, not for some schismatic group as were the unlawful but valid ordinations by the SSPX [the Church eventually removed the sentence of unlawful]. I don’t know exactly what the cases Altieri refers to, as he says, are allegations. The primary matter of contention is whether [as Anna believes] the Archbishop is objecting to errors and statements that mislead the faithful from practice of the faith. That is the key and incontrovertible question in this case, regardless of the Archbishop’s alleged infractions. For one, he has never declared himself to be outside, and to wit, against the Church. He has never denied Apostolic and perennial doctrine. If he’s being threatened with excommunication for speaking the truth, then the motives for his trial are invalid. His prosecutors have to prove a legitimate infraction that warrants excommunication. And not to be excluded, Archbishop Carlo Viganò is morally compelled, as all clerics are to address error in defense of the faith whoever the source of the error may be, including the supreme pontiff.
“…then the motives for his trial are invalid.”
This is because those motives are motivated by a desire to accommodate sexual sin in Christ’s Church.
Vigano is certainly not the problem in the Church.
The leadership in our country and the leadership in our Church are strikingly similar.
Only God can dig us out of the ditch they have both landed us in.
I wonder how much the Bergoglio mafia pay for this piece of wet journalism?
Dear Paul – if this limp speculation is the best you can find, then Margie Riccomini’s comment carries the day!
“The leadership in our country and the leadership in our Church are strikingly similar.“
This is because this “leadership”, in desiring to promote sexual sin in both Church and State, deny both The Sanctity of the marital act within the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony and The Sanctity of human life from the moment of conception.
Dear ND: Beloved Saint John’s Revelation 12:17 gives us a pointer:
“Then the dragon (satan) was enraged with the woman (our mother Mary) and went away to make war on the rest of her children – those who obey God’s commandments and bear witness for Jesus.”
The Church must prioritize this spiritual battle & shake off all worldly addiction.
PF & Co are straining to serve 2 masters; publicly demonstrating why Jesus taught us that that is impossible.
The message: if they don’t repent, we will need new, fully Apostolic leaders.
Father GOD, in the Name of The LORD Jesus Christ, please give us more of Your Holy Spirit of truth and wisdom and good counsel. Amen!
Vigano is not a problem in the church, because he is no longer in the church.
Viganò gets a 💋 from Francis. When questioned, Viganò should reply:
“N U T S !”
https://www.army.mil/article/92856/the_story_of_the_nuts_reply
OKay. It was a very lengthy read and confusing for this randomly-organized brain of mine to organize. However, I believe I got the point loud and clear. Yes, Vigano should reply: “BRAZIL, CASHEW, PINE, OR WALL! Which does KissLips prefer?” (IOW, Vigano should imply he has a broad array of reinforce-nuts from which to choose.)
What counts to me is whether Arch. Vigano is sincere/speaks the truth about PF and his actions or not. In my opinion, he is sincere and I agree with his accusations of PF i.e. that PF is a heretic. The vector of PF’s heresy can be shown even without analyzing his confusing statements.
Martin, Rupnik, Fernandez etc. have offended God but not Pope Francis. They are faithful to the latter and this is all that counts. From here follows that PF is bigger than God.
On the other hand, Vigano defended God (truth) and as a consequence offended Pope Francis. It is unforgivable.
This is all to it.
This mechanics is well-known when one deals with abuse in families: a pathological family has no moral rules but one, of a toral faithfulness to its head (typically a narcissist). A head of the family uses only his wants as a measure of what is good or bad, not the objective morals. The members of such a family can abuse others and each other as long as they are faithful to its head. But, as soon as one of them challenges the head he is punished and ostracized. When this scheme is pulled up to the metaphysical level (Church) it acquires some diabolical flavour. We all used to dishonesty in the world but when it happens in the Church it kills a hope.
This is why I keep saying that PF is a “psychological heretic”. His psyche processes Christianity in a way that it comes out twisted, good becomes bad and bad – good, with Rupniks roaming free, victims not heard and various “fools” who care about God and Church (like Vigano) are being prosecuted.
There’re many, many good Catholics who agree with you, dear Anna.
Also, with the heart-felt comment of TPR & others, above.
A vital question for us all to pray about:
Is the all-too-obvious demonic aspect of PF’s rule & the ensuing Church-wide mess a sign of God’s wrath on a church that had been growing luke-warm for decades?
If God has removed His Protection (for a season) what is it that offended?
Apostle John’s Revelation, chapters 2 & 3, might give us some clues . . .
“Think where you were before you fell; and do as you used to do at first; . .”
“You must repent, or I (Jesus) shall soon come to you and attack these people . .”
“Wake up; revive what little you have left; it is dying fast.”
“Repent. If you do not wake up, I (Jesus) shall come to you like a thief . . ”
“Since you are only lukewarm, I (Jesus) will spit you out of My mouth . .”
“I am The One who reproves & disciplines all those He loves; so repent in real earnest.”
Psalm 111:10 gives us a powerful pointer:
“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; we have sound sense if we practice this.”
Whether legitimate or illegitimate, the current pope is spiritually marked by a lack of respectful fear for God & for God’s commands. Scarcely surprising then (the psalmist tells us) this pope’s mess of unwise ecclesial & political words & actions.
This is the same yesterday, today, & forever (Psalm 112:1) –
“Happy the person who fears The LORD; by joyfully keeping GOD’s commandments.”
What is it that our leaders could possibly not understand about that . . ?
I was thinking how to comment but then saw the newly published “Head of Vatican communications strongly defend continued use of Rupnik art”. I began reading it and felt such a nausea that I had to stop.
I have studied both human psychology and theology and blend them in my thinking. This is why I see that the Church is becoming more and more narcissistic i.e. more and more devoid of empathy, capacity to recognize its wrongdoings and to repent. Absolutely everything in the current situation can be explained by a vector away from Jesus Christ = the Love towards the ultimate narcissist, devil. Take for example the fact that the Vatican communications strongly defend continued use of Rupnik art”. This is demonstration of zero empathy with the victims, zero understanding of what a sacred art is, zero compassion, zero anything but blatant entitlement and spitting into both God’s and victim’s faces. You wrote “all-too-obvious demonic aspect of PF’s rule” and here it is. A person with a lack of empathy and an unbound entitlement (pride) is a chosen dwelling place for evil (this is the Church’s teaching).
What can I say? It is the vector towards inferno which began with a system of covering up of child sexual abuse decades ago i.e. protecting not victims but abusers (a narcissistic swap of values). It was done “for the sake of preserving Church’s image” – another purely narcissistic reasoning, a care about a façade and sacrificing others (children) for its sake. Lay people also participated in that crime, many expressed their anger with the victims because the victims “polluted the image of the Church” – it is also very self-centered thinking, zero care for suffering persons, children. Later the members of the Church refused to engage in self-scrutiny for the purpose of seeing what in each of them could contribute to abuse – this is why now we see that the abusive vector is still there, mutating and growing. Right now this vector of narcissistic abuse is enabling the Vatican to state that it is OK to have the art of a pervert in the churches.
Thus, I am convinced that the Church is reaping the fruits of its own non-repentance, of its own narcissism. This situation does not require God’s wreath because the Church which behaves that way effectively separates herself from its Head. It is heading from personal to impersonal.
And so, anyone who wants to stay with Christ must engage in a battle with institutional narcissism (including within themselves). That will be the last thing to do before the end.
Excellent, Anna. I enjoy reading your comments because they resonate with me as one speaking truth.
And yet NOTHING you said indicates that Vigano is right about his charges and is justified in his schism. All you are saying is that many things are wrong with the church under Francis. That is obvious. Everyone agrees with that. The question is not whether something is wrong with the church. The question is whether the Vatican is correct in disciplining Vigano, who has gone off the rails. Just because we currently have a bad father (Francis) does not give his children the right to do anything they like in retribution. There is a proper way to deal with an errant father and a wrong way. “Honor your father and mother” come into play here. If you think Francis is a bad pope, then you can say that. But claiming he is not the pope, or that the Covid vaccines are the work of a secret freemason cabal set to take over the world is just nuts.
Two wrongs (or narcissists;) do not make a right. There is never an excuse for schism, even if obedience is crucifying.
I think a very important point is missing here: it is a heretic who creates a schism i.e. cuts himself from the Church of Christ and not those who point at his heresy and refuse to obey his heretical ideas. At least it was so in the Church before us. Recall St Maximus the Confessor for example.
As for obedience, I will give a crude but effective Orthodox analogy. Obedience is highly prized among our monastics and so it is said that a monk must obey even if his superior orders him to plant onions upside down. However, if he orders him to tear the Gospels pages out for a usage in a toilet he must not.
Again, excellent Anna.
Are the “orthodox “ in schism?
Dear ‘GF’. Think:
Schism was, is, & always will be impossible for all those who listen to, lovingly obey, and faithfully follow our LORD Jesus Christ (check out John 10:27-30). We are the sheep The Father has given to Jesus, our Good Shepherd. We are those, most blessed, into whom He has breathed His Holy Spirit.
He says we are greater than John the Baptist, who was the greatest of all prophets.
Those who obey Christ lovingly constitute His Body – that includes our Most Blessed Mother Mary, 1st Pope Saint Peter, and all that Great Cloud of Witnesses who throughout history have been lovingly obedient to our Beloved LORD.
For this unshakeable, unbreakable, unbeatable core withing the church, the hate-filled hubris, anti-Apostolic heresies, and malicious (even murderous) in-fighting of the corp of ambitious clerics is like water off a duck’s back; even though it attracts major attention from the world and is erroneously treated as what is most important by Church historians.
What don’t they understand about John 17 – e.g. “Obey My commands and I and The Father will make our home with you!” see also: 2 Corinthians 13:5.
And it’s far, far easier than the career theologians & the career clerics spin it: for Jesus’ yoke was, is, & always will be easy and His burden light!
Be of good cheer, brother ‘GF’! Things are better than they look.
Ever in the love of The Lamb; blessings from marty
I agree with the principle of two narcissists. However, I wonder who we identify as the schismatic. Who has favored schismatic movements? Who has greater authority and responsibility for guarding the faith and ensuring church unity?
Is it Francis or is it Vigano?
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=12379
http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/archbishop-vigans-comments-on-vatican-ii/
http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/archbishop-viganos-challenge-on-vatican-ii/
It all adds up: Bergoglio is a vengeful pope. He says he favors synodality and dialogue but his actions speak louder than his words. He seeks to eliminate those who disagree with him and surrounds himself with sycophants galore. How long, Lord? How long?
I haven’t followed the situation with Archbishop Vigano very closely in recent years, although I remain deeply grateful to him for speaking out directly against the extended nightmare of the long-running Theodore McCarrick saga. So I won’t say much about Vigano’s current situation.
But whatever has been going on with Vigano has been unfolding for years, and now, the news suddenly breaks that the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith is conducting an expedited process against him. The timing looks convenient in relation to the Marko Rupnik investigation, given that investigation has been going on for over eight months without much news until this past month. Plus, there have been signs of moves to rehabilitate Rupnik’s reputation, including the use of his illustrations and other Aletti Center products by the Vatican Press Office, as well as the relatively recent announcement that the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida will continue to pursue the project of having the Aletti Center install Biblical-themed mosaics on more external facades, in hopes that the Basilica will become a magnet for pilgrimages. The Rupnik investigation, we were told by the lead prosecutor, is in an “advanced state” but is a “delicate” case, whatever that actually means. But to me, that doesn’t sound promising. In comparison, the Vigano situation probably looks like low-hanging fruit to the DDF investigators. And predictably enough, when the news broke, commentary of “well, Vigano certainly had it coming” variety, along with defenses of Vigano, discussions and disagreements about the charges involving “rejection of Vatican II,” and so on, have been dominating Catholic news sites and social media.
As such, whatever the outcome of the prosecution against Vigano, it is providing a fresh news-and-controversy cycle that serves as quite a distraction from something else, whatever that “something” is. I am predisposed to believe that it is the lack of movement on the Rupnik investigation, but it could be multiple “somethings.” And the Vigano prosecution certainly provides plenty of opportunities for various individuals to prove their loyalty to Pope Francis, while simultaneously identifying more potential enemies to be rooted out. So it serves multiple purposes and could also have unpredictable types of collateral damage yet to be seen. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for us.
Good Point about creating a distraction they think they can win while they gear up to kill the Latin Mass and obscure any reference to its perpetual validity from Pius V as just another trad obsession. The proverbial killing two birds…
Can we add Bishop Stowe to the list?
God bless Vigano. Would that more than a handful of bishops share his courage to speak the truth.
I have to agree with Mr. Altieri. Archbishop Viganò was “cruising for a bruise,” as our fathers used to say before physical punishment of children was abandoned in favor of letting them run wild. Just like Bishop Strickland, he has overplayed his hand with intemperate remarks and actions. That doesn’t mean he’s wrong about everything– far from it. After his laicization and excommunication, when he’ll have nothing much more to lose, I’ll be interested to see if he finally comes out with the proof he said he had about the McCarrick affair in such a way that takes down some living or even active bishops and archbishops along with him. And yes, it’s long past time that those on the left who are off the rails got the same treatment that those on the right get when they go off the rails. But I don’t see much hope for consistent justice in this pontificate, the motto of which seems to be, “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”
I enjoyed your last line. If something like that is indeed the Pope’s operating principle motto, it would explain why he has been publicly so chummy with rabid and highly extreme pro=abortionists like Biden, Pelosi, and a recent rash of leftist comedians he felt a need to meet in person.Lots of condemnation and punitive action for conservative Catholics, those who love the Latin Mass and those like Vigano; smiles and pats on the head for those who trash church teachings.If he thinks we don’t notice the disparity, he is wrong.
I can’t but help admire Vigano’ even if he may have gone too far in some things that he has said. The man has rare courage. He indeed seems to be a “nut” to the worldly. That is commonly the case with those who march to God’s beat rather than the world’s.
The “Unbearable Delicacy of the Love of Rupnik” is the final act in the Theater of Pontiff Francis.”
It takes a degree of “refinement” to appreciate just how “delicate” this matter is to “the-teaching-and-preaching-of-the-Pontiff-Francis-magisterium.” It is do delicate that the priest who persevered in pressing the Rupnik investigation had to be removed from his investigation duties. That bit of the untold story can be read in the report at the link below:
https://unherd.com/2024/04/the-scandals-haunting-pope-francis/
The great herald of Pontiff Francis, who in 2013, in his then-celebrity status as “non-non-Eminence,” Theodore McCarrick, tells the world how happy he is to have ensured the election of his friend Jorge Bergoglio, in the video at link below:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ2kGf7gZIQ
He didn’t sound on the brink of dementia here. Maybe at his would be trial a few years later he was successfully pulling off that mafia routine of faking it.
I trust that Vigano is privy to a good many dark secretly-kept scandals implicating bishops and others all up the ladder. Don’t be surprised in his attempt to defend himself against these allegations to find him revealing a good many of them.
Vigano’s commentaries against the Sankt Gallen Mafia from his denunciation of McCarrick to his refutation of the papal authorisation of blessing Sodomite couples have been neither looney nor unhinged.
He is a hero of the Catholic Resistance during the post-conciliar Apostasy.
Beati.
How exactly can someone be accused of being schismatic if they are in communion with Christ and every validly elected Pope, and affirm The Deposit Of Faith, which affirms the Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony?
EXACTLY.
Explanation: we are under the first pope of modern times for whom good is evil & evil is good. A basic tenet of the occult.
Singing: “Let GOD arise, His enemies be scattered!”
Keep praying everyone; love & blessings from marty
Vigano has the true “Pulse” of Jesus Christ and His Church AND OF the
dissimulating depths of Hell currently occupying the Vatican.
“Unfortunately, Christopher, the only thing Vigano can truly be accused of is SPEAKING THE TRUTH.” [ quoted from Dan, above ].
“Unfortunately, Christopher, the only thing Vigano can truly be accused of is SPEAKING THE TRUTH.” [ quoted from Dan, above ].
As I have noted elsewhere, the bottom line is that you can:
• Venerate pagan idols in the Vatican (pachamama).
• Protect criminal sex offenders and religious superiors who themselves protect criminal sex offenders (Rupnik, Danneels, Grassi, Murphy-O’Connor, Maradiaga, Marx, De Kesel, et al).
• Promote clerics with checkered pasts (See above).
• Remove faithful Bishops without moral or legal basis (Strickland, Torres).
• Put clerics who write racy books about orgasms in power (Víctor Manuel Fernández).
• Direct that adulterers be absolved and given Holy Communion even when they knowingly and willingly persist in objective mortal sin (Amoris laetitia).
• Bless adulterous and homosexual relationships (Fiducia supplicans).
• Claim God wills even false religions (Abu Dhabi agreement).
• Claim adultery, fornication, and homosexual relations can be morally good. (Fiducia supplicans).
• Collaborate with oppressive Chinese Communist government (who harvest organs from unwilling victims) in a secret agreement despite the increase in persecutions that continues.
But God help you if you protest these and the many other abominations! You will be persecuted and your persecutors will find the speck in your eye while ignoring the abominations and/or the logs in their own eyes!
Dear Margaret, this wisdom was surely given you by our Most Blessed Mother Mary, Queen of Heaven.
Thank you, for the affirmation, Dr. Marty. And may God help us all.
Thanks to you, too, dear Margaret.
Another shocker was Pope Francis’ fraternizing with pornographers.
Porn-addicted clergy might take it that sin is good!
Pornography certainly cossetts molestation of children & sexual abuse of vulnerable adults and fosters the rampant plague of homosexuality among clergy, seminarians, etc.
There are examples where porn-addicted parents think it OK to seduce their children; and where porn-addicted men think it OK to beat-up on their wives.
With pornogrphy officially acknowledged, teenagers in our schools have thought it cool to distribute hundreds of gross pornographic, AI-faked images of innocent young schoolgirls, traumatizing them & their families.
If our pope were true to his office, he would issue a total ban on pornography.
Instead of fraternizing with pornographers, etc. our pope should be lifting high The Catholic Breviary and instructing that all clergy return to a daily life of immersing themselves in Scripture & prayer, as good Catholic clergy have done for centuries.
Ever in the love of King Jesus Christ; blessings from marty
The statue of “Pachamama” was actually of the Virgin Mary. (Pachamama is an Andean goddess who looks like a mountain, not Brazillian and not a pregnant girl.) That story was confected by “Catholic” YouTube shock jocks.
Francis has been very clear that a gay union is not to be blessed, but the individuals who reach out sincerely may be, at the priest’s discretion where there is no chance that it can be confused for a wedding or marriage blessing. Anyway, the blessing that the priest gives may be to ask for chastity.
On China, the decision on how to act in the best interests of the faithful is a prudential one: if the criterion was the morality of the regime there would have been few governments that the church could interacted with. The issue is whether a persecuted underground church is better for Chinese Catholics and christians than one that one with state-sanctioned bishops: it is not an easy call. (Remember that giving national governments rights to suggest and veto bishops is long-standing: e.g. the pre-reformation Archbishop of Canterbury in England.)
“Viganò has repeatedly expressed doubt that Francis is the legitimate pope.” Yes, he has; is this one of the things that Mr. Altieri considers to be “unhinged”? I hope not, for that itself would be thoroughly unhinged.
Where to begin with evidence that makes His Excellency’s serious accusation entirely plausible, if not probable? Well, how about Francis’ guideline in Amoris Laetitia that overturns formal Catholic moral teaching, making it allowable for people bearing the mortal sin of adultery to receive Holy Communion, a mortal sin itself? Would an ontologically valid Pope approve that?!
I dare say that a massive, massive contributor to the chaos that reigns in the Church today is “professional Catholics”, both lay and clerical, who are too intellectually dishonest, too lacking in faith, too cowardly and/or too cynically agenda driven to truthfully face where we are at, head on. This situation and these questions have direct implications on the eternal destination of countless souls. Would that they actually believed that; would that they actually cared.
Spoken by a good & faithful servant of the LORD Jesus Christ:
“This situation and these questions have direct implications on the eternal destination of countless souls. Would that they actually believed that; would that they actually cared.”
At 67 I’m a child of Vatican 2. I barely remember the Latin Mass. I may have served 2 or 3 times as a 3rd grader and never learned the Latin, though I received 1st Communion and was Confirmed with the Latin Rite when I was in 2nd Grade. When the Mass transitioned to the vernacular I consistently served at Mass.
I’m reminded what Saint Pope John XXIII said about opening the windows and letting fresh air in. Well, here in Kansas, when a storm brews you shut the windows, including the storm windows to keep the damage out. We’ve failed to do that.
The Papacy is supposed to be a position of clarification of the doctrine and beliefs and comfort for the Church Militant in our struggles in our faith. Pope Francis has failed at both of these. Vigano is wrong though, Pope Francis is Pope, he’s just not a very good one.
So how do we extricate ourselves from this mess we’re in? Prayer! When that doesn’t work, pray some more and then pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray . . .
When that doesn’t seem to have solved the issue, then pray even more. Christ promised to always be with his church. He is here, he is speaking, but are we listening?
Archbshp Vigano has said what many are thinking about this pontificate and the Vatican bureaucracy, that have made a pact with the world and it’s leader.I don’t think”looney” as Mr Altieri has said fits at all.Vigano for Papa!Strickland for Cardinal!
Readers who consider themselves educated Catholics might care to brush up on The Council of Constance’s (1415) rejection of the various ”dominion” theories of John Wycliffe. They seem to be quite relevant.
In particular, it anathematizes the following views that “If a bishop or a priest is in mortal sin, he does not ordain or confect or consecrate or baptise.” ” It is lawful for any deacon or priest to preach the word of God without authorisation from the apostolic see or from a catholic bishop.” “Nobody is a civil lord or a prelate or a bishop while he is in mortal sin.” “If a pope is foreknown as damned and is evil, and is therefore a limb of the devil, he does not have authority over the faithful given to him by anyone, except perhaps by the emperor.” “The people can correct sinful lords at their discretion.” “Excommunication by a pope or any prelate is not to be feared since it is a censure of antichrist.” “The Roman church is Satan’s synagogue; and the pope is not the immediate and proximate vicar of Christ and the apostles.”
It seems to me that several of Vigano’s comments take those anathematized positions, on their face.