Carlo Maria Vigano, the fall of a conspiratorial diplomat

Excommunication. The word might seem to be from another time for some. But it was recently used to refer to the status of an archbishop, Mgr Carlo Maria Vigano. The announcement, on July 4, by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, of this criminal procedure against this prelate wants, in fact, to underline the seriousness of the facts of which he is accused, the man having provoked, by his statements in particular, a situation of de facto schism.

To understand what he is accused of, we must go back over his commitment. This Italian prelate spent a large part of his career in the world of Vatican diplomacy. Appointed to Iraq and then to Great Britain, he was also permanent observer of the Holy See to the Council of Europe, before being appointed apostolic nuncio to Nigeria by Pope John Paul II. A flawless career that led him to join the Vatican Secretariat of State, which is the political beating heart of the Holy See. In this capacity, he established good ties with members of the Roman Curia and became secretary general for the governorate of the Vatican City State in 2009. He also initiated a necessary economic reform, while the Vatican’s accounting deficits were increasingly glaring.

This fight against bad habits and arrangements of administrative and banking services within the Vatican is a formidable battle, which Pope Francis will take on head on at the time of his election. For the time being, Mgr Vigano is laying the first necessary milestones, going so far as to oppose the all-powerful right-hand man of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. This fight will leave its mark, especially since he himself is accused of having favored the hiring of one of his nephews within the Roman services. Was it to limit his disturbing work that he was appointed apostolic nuncio in Washington in 2011? Carlo Maria Vigano believes so, denouncing in an internal letter, revealed during the leaks linked to Vatileaks, the practices of nepotism and the struggles for influence of the Vatican services, notably within the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), the famous Vatican bank.

Three years into Pope Francis’ pontificate, the archbishop resigned because at 75, he had reached the regulatory age limit. But it was also at this time that an investigation was conducted into how he allegedly covered up a number of sexual violence scandals in the Archdiocese of Minneapolis. The American press revealed that Carlo Maria Vigano allegedly pushed for the destruction of documents compromising the archbishop of this diocese.

It is from this time that the dark side of the character emerges more and more. The man, undeniably politically gifted, was also known for his memorable anger when someone dared to stand up to him. As well as a pronounced taste for titles and money, as his own brother Lorenzo recounted in 2013, during a painful family inheritance affair. By losing his diplomatic position, the Italian prelate took refuge in the most conservative American Catholic circles. Those who, very quickly, opposed the new pastoral approach of the South American Pope Francis. He thus became an unofficial spokesperson, if not an increasingly active promoter, of a frontal opposition to the Argentinian Pope. Cardinal Vigano had long denounced the existence of a homosexual lobby within the Vatican. And in fact, the question of homosexuality, as for many conservative Catholics, became an obsession for the character. As a result, all of Pope Francis’ pastoral openings on this issue, as on that of remarried divorcees, become occasions for sharp public criticism. He thus participated, in September 2017, in an open letter that denounced the apostolic exhortation Love Laetitia, referring to the support of families. He takes up a vocabulary and arguments directly from the most traditionalist, even fundamentalist Catholic circles. According to him, Pope Francis would sow heresy and lose his footing in the rigor of Catholic doctrine.

Worse still, he denounces the mishandling, according to him, of another complex case by Pope Francis. What is it about? In 2018, the former Archbishop of Washington, Theodore E. McCarrick, was ostracized from the Church, then dismissed from the clerical state the following year, before being officially charged with sexual assault in 2021. But, in 2018, a few weeks after the case became official, Cardinal Vigano called for the resignation of the highest authorities of the Vatican. And even that of Pope Francis, whom he accuses of having rehabilitated the American prelate despite the warnings that he must have known about the character. A real open “declaration of war”, according to the New York Times. The Pope himself invites journalists to conduct their investigation to untangle the threads of the story. A work that will bring to light the many errors in the Archbishop’s statements.

But the confusion caused by this influential figure will spread within the American bishops’ conference, a large fringe of conservative prelates of which also criticizes Pope Francis’ approach. Vigano will not stop there. During the COVID10 pandemic, he evokes, in an increasingly conspiratorial way of thinking, the political manipulations that lead to the banning of religious celebrations. He also officially supports candidate Trump in 2020, evoking the danger of a military dictatorship in the United States. In 2023, his links with traditionalist circles are increasingly displayed, taking up their old criticisms of the Second Vatican Council and the legitimacy of the current pope.

The announcement of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith therefore clarifies the increasingly problematic relationship of this prelate with the Catholic Church. The multiplication of his increasingly virulent remarks with regard to the current Catholic institution puts him, in fact, in rupture of communion with it. What the canonists call an “excommunication latae sentenciae“, in this case for schism, according to canons 316 and 1364, for “refusal to submit to the supreme pontiff or to commune with the members of the Church who are subject to him.”