The breakaway traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X has distanced itself from an Italian archbishop and former Vatican envoy to the United States accused of schism, after he compared himself to the founder of the society who also faced charges of schism.
In a statement published 24 June on their news website, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) referred to arguments that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who served as apostolic nuncio to the United States from 2011-2016 and who has accused Pope Francis of abuse coverup, has made in his defence in various online posts. In particular the society focused on Viganò at one point comparing himself to their founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who was also summoned to the Vatican to answer to allegations of schism roughly 50 years ago.
“His defence is mine; his words are mine; and his arguments are mine – arguments before which the Roman authorities could not condemn him for heresy, having to wait instead for him to consecrate bishops so as to have the pretext of declaring him schismatic and then revoking his excommunication when he was already dead,” Viganò said in a 20 June post on the <em>Exsurge Domine</em> website.
Now, the archbishop added, “the scheme is repeated even after half a century has demonstrated Archbishop Lefebvre’s prophetic choice". <br><strong><br>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/vatican-accuses-former-us-nuncio-archbishop-vigano-of-schism/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Vatican accuses former US nuncio Archbishop Viganò of schism</mark></a></strong>
The SSPX in their statement said there is one point which “significantly differentiates” Viganò from Lefebvre, and this difference is that “Archbishop Viganò makes a clear declaration of <em>sedevacantism</em> in his text. In other words, according to him, Pope Francis is not pope.”
Viganò makes this claim in his 20 June post, on <em>Exsurge Domine</em>, in which he said that “Bergoglio is to the Church what other world leaders are to their nations: traitors, subversives, and final liquidators of traditional society who are certain of impunity".
Viganò goes on: “Bergoglio’s defect of consent (<em>vitium consensus</em>) in accepting his election is based precisely on the evident alienity of his action of government and magisterium with respect to what any Catholic of any age expects from the Vicar of Christ and the Successor of the Prince of the Apostles."
The SSPX in their statement addressed the reference to a “defect of consent", saying that “according to Viganò, Cardinal Bergoglio considered the papacy as something other than what it really is. He accepted the pontifical office without fully consenting, and this error resulted in the nullity of his acceptance. His pontificate would therefore be that of a placeholder.”
The statement then stated: “Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society he founded have not ventured down that perilous road."
In a decree dated 11 June, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) summoned Viganò to answer to charges of schism on 20 June.
Viganò did not show up to that audience and has since indicated in social media posts and in online articles that he does not intend to present a defence, considering the allegations against him to be “an honour".
In a 21 June post, Viganò stated that he has “no intention of going to the Holy Office on June 28”, the deadline by which he must present a defence, before the extrajudicial process against him moves forward.
Viganò insisted that “I have not delivered any statement or document in my defence to the Dicastery, whose authority I do not recognise, nor do I recognise the authority of its Prefect, nor do I recognise the authority of the one who appointed him".
“I have no intention of submitting myself to a show trial in which those who are supposed to judge me impartially in order to defend Catholic orthodoxy are at the same time those whom I accuse of heresy, treason, and abuse of power,” he said.
The SSPX was founded by Lefebvre in 1970 to form priests as a response to what he described as errors that had arisen in the Church following the Second Vatican Council. Its relations with the Holy See were further strained in 1988 when Lefebvre and Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer consecrated four bishops without the permission of Pope John Paul II.
The illicit consecration resulted in the excommunication of the six bishops. The excommunications of the surviving bishops were lifted in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI amid ongoing negotiations to restore communion; however, he also clarified that doctrinal issues were still present and that until they were resolved, the SSPX had no canonical status in the church and its ministers could not legitimately exercise any ministry.
In a sign of goodwill, Pope Francis during the Jubilee of Mercy extended to the priests of the SSPX the faculty to validly hear confessions and absolve penitents. He later extended this faculty until further notice.<br><br><em>Photo: Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Apostolic Nuncio of the United States, reads the Apostolic Mandate during the Installation Mass of Archbishop Blase Cupich at Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, US, 18 November 2014. (Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast-Pool/Getty Images.)</em>
