A copy of the decree summoning the former nuncio for today at 3:30 p.m. at the Palace of the Holy Office for an extrajudicial criminal process has been published on social networks.
Vatican News
On the social network
According to the publication, which reproduces a copy of a decree attributed to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Viganò was to appear this afternoon (or appoint a defender) at 3:30 p.m. to “take note of the accusations and evidence relating to the crime of schism of which he is accused (public statements resulting in a denial of the elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church: denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis, break with him and rejection of the Second Vatican Council)”. If he does not appear or does not present a defense brief before June 28, the document disclosed in X further states, the archbishop “will be judged in his absence.”
As will be remembered, Viganò had starred in the controversial letter in September 2018 about the case of American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, which concluded by calling for the Pope’s resignation. That matter, which was fully clarified by the Holy See with the publication of a thorough report in November 2020 that exhaustively refutes the former nuncio, is not the subject of the document published in account , of not recognizing the legitimacy of the Pontiff or that of the last Council. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has not made any comment on the announcement published on social networks.
When publishing the decree, the social profile in the name of Viganò attributes these words to the former nuncio: “I consider the accusations against me an honor” and defines the Second Vatican Council as an “ideological, theological, moral and liturgical cancer”, and the Church synodal as a “metastasis”.
The Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, commented on the matter: “Monsignor Viganò has taken some attitudes and some gestures for which he must respond,” said the cardinal, on the sidelines of a conference at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, explaining that there has been to the former nuncio the opportunity to defend himself.
On a personal level, said the cardinal, remembering – at the request of journalists – the times in which they shared work, “I am very sorry because I always appreciated him as a great worker, very faithful to the Holy See, who in a certain sense was also a example. When he was apostolic nuncio he worked well. “What happened,” the Secretary of State concluded, “I don’t know.”
