Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has released the full text of a private letter sent to Pope Leo XIV on January 25, 2026, in which the former apostolic nuncio to the US defends his record of service under five popes, rejects his 2024 excommunication as illegitimate and urges the new Pontiff to confront what he describes as the Church’s rupture with Tradition.
The text, published by LifeSiteNews on June 15, comes months after Viganò’s repeated attempts to secure a papal audience were reportedly accepted then cancelled. In the letter, addressed from Viterbo on the feast of the Conversion of St Paul, the 85-year-old prelate recounts his diplomatic career, his role in exposing clerical corruption and his growing conviction that the Second Vatican Council marked a deliberate break with the Church’s perennial magisterium.
