Two clerics in Italy have been sanctioned for the crime of schism after both publicly argued that Pope Francis was never validly elected and thus constitutes an “anti-pope". One a former diocesan priest and the other a member of a religious order, both clerics had established robust ecclesiastical reputations before their falls from grace.
The Archdiocese of Sassari on the Italian island of Sardinia announced on 13 November that Fernando Maria Cornet, a native Argentinian who was ordained to the priesthood in 1992 and who served in Sassari since 2011, has been dismissed from the clerical state by order of Pope Francis.
