ROME (AP) 鈥 The Vatican has excommunicated its former ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable end for the firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis ' most ardent critics and a symbol of the polarized Catholic Church in the U.S. and beyond.
The Vatican's doctrine office imposed the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday and informed Vigano of its decision Friday, a press statement said.
It cited Vigano's 鈥渞efusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.鈥
The Vatican excommunication means that Vigano is formally outside the church, and cannot celebrate or receive its sacraments, for having committed one of the gravest crimes in canon law: schism. A schism occurs when someone withdraws submission to the pope or from the communion of Catholics who are subject to him.
It is considered particularly dangerous to the faith because it threatens the unity of the church, which is built on obedience to the pope. And Vigano had created a following of like-minded conservatives and traditionalists over the years as he delved deeper and deeper into conspiracy theories about everything from the coronavirus pandemic, to what he called the 鈥淕reat Reset鈥 and other fringe ideas.
His dire pronunciations about the current state of the Catholic Church, amplified on Catholic social media sites and by ideologically friendly bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic, were an exaggerated version of the chasm between U.S. ultra-conservatives and Francis. While the Italian prelate enjoyed mainstream support among conservative bishops early in his public career, many distanced themselves as his ideas became more and more extreme.
Vigano, who hasn't been seen publicly since before 2018, knew the schism declaration was coming after the Vatican informed him that it was launching a penal process against him last month. He defiantly called it and refused to appear in person or in writing to defend himself.
Vigano issued a lengthy public statement last month justifying his conduct and refusing to recognize the authority of the Vatican's doctrinal office 鈥渢hat claims to judge me, nor of its prefect, nor of the one who appointed him.鈥
But he didn鈥檛 directly respond to the schism declaration Friday on X, his usual forum. About an hour before the Vatican decree was made public, he announced he would be celebrating a Mass on Friday for those who have been supporting him and asked for donations.
Vigano first burst into the public's awareness in 2012, during the first Vatileaks scandal, when Pope Benedict XVI鈥檚 butler leaked the pontiff鈥檚 private papers to an Italian journalist to try to draw attention to corruption in the Holy See.
In some of the leaked letters Vigano, then the No. 2 in the Vatican City State administration, begged the pope not to be transferred after exposing corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts that cost the Holy See millions of euros (dollars).
The entreaties didn鈥檛 work: By the time the letters were published, Benedict had transferred Vigano to be the Vatican鈥檚 ambassador to the United States, certainly a prestigious post but one that took him far from Rome and out of the running to one day be a cardinal.
Vigano reappeared on the scene during Francis鈥 2015 visit to the United States, which as nuncio Vigano helped organize. Everything was going fine until Vigano arranged for Kim Davis, a Kentucky clerk at the center of the U.S. gay marriage debate, to be among a small group of people at the Vatican residence to greet Francis.
Davis had risen to prominence for refusing to issue all marriage licenses rather than be compelled to issue licenses to same-sex couples. She became a hero to the conservative right in the U.S., with whom Vigano had increasingly identified during U.S. culture wars over gay marriage and religious liberty issues.
After the visit ended, Davis and her lawyers claimed the encounter with Francis amounted to an affirmation of her cause. The Vatican later when it released footage of what it said was the 鈥渙nly鈥 private audience Francis had in Washington: with a small group of people that included a gay couple.
Vigano鈥檚 deception in inviting Davis to meet the pope, who had wanted to steer clear of the U.S. culture wars during his visit, appeared to put the two on what would become a collision course that exploded in August 2018.
At the time, the U.S. church was reeling from a new chapter in its clergy sex abuse scandal: One of the most senior U.S. churchmen, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, had been accused of molesting a minor and a Pennsylvania grand jury had issued a devastating investigation into decades of abuse and cover-up.
As Francis was wrapping up a tense visit to Ireland, Vigano accusing him and decades of U.S. and Vatican officials of covering for McCarrick. Specifically, Vigano accused Francis of rehabilitating McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Benedict, and called on him to resign.
The accusations were explosive and helped create the
Francis quickly authorized an in-house investigation to determine who knew what and when about McCarrick鈥檚 penchant for sleeping with his seminarians.
The report, released in 2020, confirmed that a generation of church officials, including Pope John Paul II, had to McCarrick鈥檚 misconduct. It largely spared Francis who eventually defrocked the churchman.
But the report also faulted Vigano for not looking into new claims against McCarrick or enforcing Vatican restrictions on him when specifically ordered to do so by the Vatican.
At that point, Vigano鈥檚 claims against Francis began to become more unhinged. He endorsed conspiracy theories about the coronavirus vaccines, appeared at far-right political rallies in the U.S., backed Russia in its war and, eventually, refused to recognize Francis as pope.
