The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith summoned Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the nuncio to the United States from 2011 to 2016, to testify on 20 June.
He is accused of the crime of schism for having made public statements denying the legitimacy of Pope Francis and rejecting the Second Vatican Council.
The archbishop announced on social media that an extrajudicial criminal trial had been opened against him. He claims he was informed by email and assumes his sentence has already been set. Moreover, Archbishop Vigano calls these accusations an honour because he says they confirm what he has said in his speeches.
“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,” he said.
“The Council represents the ideological, theological, moral, and liturgical cancer of which the Bergoglian ‘synodal church’ is the necessary metastasis.”
One of Archbishop Vigano’s accusations was put in a 2018 letter. It said Pope Francis had not acted immediately when he learned of Cardinal McCarrick’s abuses. And as a result, the former nuncio called for the pope’s resignation.
Pope Francis responded at a press conference returning from Ireland, when reporters asked him to comment on the harsh letter.
“I read that statement this morning,” the pope said about the letter.
“I read the statement carefully and make your own judgment. I will not say a word about it. I think it speaks for itself and you have enough journalistic ability to make your own conclusions.”
The letter sent by the Dicastery to Archbishop Vigano warns that if he does not present himself or report to the Doctrine of the Faith by 28 June, he will be judged in his absence.