Papal arch enemy Archbishop Vigano found guilty of schism and excommunicated

Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a fierce ultra-conservative critic of Pope Francis, has been found guilty of schism and excommunicated.

VATICAN CITY — Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a fierce ultra-conservative critic of Pope Francis, has been found guilty of schism and excommunicated, the Vatican’s doctrinal office said on Friday.

Vigano, the papal envoy in Washington from 2011-2016, went into hiding in 2018 after alleging that the pope knew for years about sexual misconduct by U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and did nothing about it.

He had said the pope should resign and subsequently branded him a “false prophet” and a “servant of Satan.”

The Vatican rejected Vigano’s accusations of a cover-up of sexual misconduct and last month summoned him to answer charges of schism and denying the pope’s legitimacy.

In a statement on Friday, the doctrinal office said his public comments made it clear that he refused “to recognize and submit” to Pope Francis. He had also rejected the legitimacy of liberal reforms made by the Roman Catholic Church in the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, it said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pope-arch-enemy-archbishop-guilty-excommunicated-rcna160524

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