The blistering indictment of Pope Francis by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, published while the Holy Father was on a difficult trip to Ireland, is such a novelty that it will take time to digest properly.
For any prelate, let alone a former apostolic nuncio, to call for the Pope’s resignation is certainly shocking. That a pope should resign is in itself an unhappy thing, as the abdication of Benedict XVI demonstrated. To call for his resignation indicates that the Church has entered treacherous waters. It harms Viganò’s case that he proposes a remedy of such severity in a document that is intemperate when it should be sober, and skirts defamation when it should be cautious in attributing motivations.
