Vatican excommunicates former envoy who called Pope Francis 'servant of Satan' & embraced conspiracy theories

The Vatican has excommunicated a senior cleric who has frequently abused Pope Francis and has embraced far-right conspiracy theories.

The Vatican announced on Friday that it had excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who has called Francis a ‘servant of Satan’ and a false prophet.

Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador to the United States, was being excommunicated after being found guilty of schism for refusing to recognise the authority of Francis and the liberal reforms enacted after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, according to The New York Times.

Vigano has been one of the most regressive clerics who has opposed the reforms that Francis had championed over the years. He has also embraced the far-right and has been supportive of former US President Donald Trump, who patronises the American far-right movement.

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In the Roman Catholicism, being excommunicated means practically being expelled and not allowed to be associated with the church’s affairs in any manner.

Under the terms of the expulsion, Vigano will be allowed to keep his title, but he will not be allowed to celebrate mass, receive or administer sacraments, and hold official positions within the church, as per the newspaper.

‘Cancer’: How Vigano dubbed Vatican’s reforms

In a recent post on his website, Vigano dubbed the church’s reforms as cancer.

“It is no coincidence that the accusation against me concerns the questioning of the legitimacy of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and the rejection of Vatican II: the Council represents the ideological, theological, moral, and liturgical cancer of which the Bergoglian ‘synodal church’ needs to metastasise,” said Vigano in a post on his website, according to an English translation of the text.

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Vigano was referring to the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) that instituted a range of reforms, such as the introduction of the concept of religious freedom and starting engagement with other religions, such as Judaism or Islam. News Christian practices, such as facing the public during mass instead of having back towards them, were also introduced.

In 2015, when he was the Vatican’s envoy to the United States, Vigano invited an anti-gay activist to meet the Pope’s US visit. The Vatican later clarified that the Pope was blindsided during the meeting.

In 2018, Vigano wrote a 7,000-word letter that sought Francis’ resignation and accused Francis and other Vatican officials of covering up sexual abuse by an American cardinal, according to The Times.

The paper noted that the letter was released at a time when Francis was in Ireland to apologise for the church’s sexual abuse scandals and amounted to “an extraordinary public declaration of war against Francis’ papacy”

Vigano’s embrace of far-right conspiracy theories

Vigano has peddled far-right conspiracy theories in recent years.

Vigano has blamed the ‘deep state’ of the West of triggering the war in Ukraine and demonising Russia.

Vigano has also peddled anti-vaccine positions amid the Covid-19 pandemic.