Excommunication of a Whistleblower
If Pope Francis expects that his banishment of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò will rid him of a troublesome thorn in his side, he is likely to be disappointed. The former papal nuncio to the United States and former top investigator who exposed financial malfeasance at the Vatican Bank and clergy sexual-abuse cases is giving no sign of letting up with his scathing attacks against Pope Francis and other leading Church officials. Many Catholics who have supported the archbishop’s charges against heresy, heterodoxy, and corruption in the Church may not be willing (yet) to follow his lead in challenging Francis’ papal legitimacy. But Rome’s deployment of the excommunication decree against the orthodox Viganò undoubtedly will cause many faithful Catholics to question why Rome is simultaneously coddling and promoting notorious sex perverts and heretical clerics. It looks like more coverup. It looks like shooting the messenger. It looks like killing the whistleblower. All in all, it’s a bad look for the Francis pontificate, which incessantly proclaims its commitment to “transparency and accountability” and insists it will enforce a “zero tolerance” policy against sexual abuse.
On July 5, the Holy See Press Office issued a press release from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) concerning the case of Viganò, whom the DDF accused of “the crime of schism.” As expected, the press release announced that the DDF had concluded its “extrajudicial penal process” and declared the archbishop to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
The DDF, the Church’s supreme doctrinal office, had summoned Archbishop Viganò to Rome in a decree emailed to the prelate on June 11. He was directed to appear in person for judgment on June 20, or to submit a defense in writing by June 28. As we reported in an online article on June 26, the archbishop announced that he had not honored the summons for the 20th and would not be submitting a written defense on the 28th. “I have not delivered any statement or document in my defense to the Dicastery, whose authority I do not recognize, nor do I recognize the authority of its Prefect, nor do I recognize the authority of the one who appointed him,” Viganò said, referring to radical Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández (aka “the kissing cardinal”) and Pope Francis.
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