Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States who was excommunicated in 2024, published a letter on July 5 addressed to the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) in which he declared that there is a schism between Pope Leo XIV and the papacy.

Published on X, Viganò expressed his “spiritual closeness” and “full support” to the Superior General of the Society of St Pius X, Fr Davide Pagliarani, following their July 2 excommunication by the Vatican.

The Society had been excommunicated after having consecrated four new bishops without Rome’s approval, despite repeated warnings from the Vatican, with the excommunication being announced by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) in a decree and accompanying explanatory note.

Viganò said: “The ruthless Decree and the Note from the former Holy Office, with their harshness toward those who have the sole ‘fault’ of wanting to remain Catholic, once again reveal the schism underway between the pope and the Papacy itself: the conciliar-synodal church that attempts to eclipse the Catholic Church.

“While it shows indulgence, if not open complicity, toward true schisms and abuses of every kind, it reserves the stones for those who guard and transmit the Faith.

“And it is precisely your fidelity that makes evident the failure of the conciliar revolution and the vitality of Tradition.

“To the priests, clerics, and lay faithful of the Fraternity founded by the Venerable Msgr. Marcel Lefebvre, allow me, dear Don Davide, to say with affection: Do not let yourselves be troubled.”

Viganò was excommunicated by the DDF in July 2024 in a letter which stated: “His public statements manifesting his refusal to recognise and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council are well known.

“At the conclusion of the penal process, the Most Reverend Carlo Maria Viganò was found guilty of the reserved delict of schism."

In a letter written by Viganò to Pope Leo XIV earlier this year, in which he urged the Pope to confront what he described as the Church’s rupture with tradition, he stated that he was not a schismatic, firmly believed in the apostolic communion and recognised the Petrine primacy.