The Vatican Excommunicates an Anti-Gay Archbishop
Long critical of Pope Francis, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano continues to post homophobic rants on social media.
The Vatican has excommunicated the notoriously right-wing and homophobic Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.
Vigano served as the church’s ambassador to the United States from 2011 to 2016, a position that was seen as a demotion following ongoing disagreements with Pope Francis.
Pope Francis has offered a measure of support for same-sex couples, though the Vatican recently issued an apology following reports the pope used a vulgar, anti-gay epithet.
Some have suggested that the Argentine pope, whose first language is Spanish, may simply have erred while speaking Italian.
Vigano’s excommunication, which leaves the door open for repentance and rehabilitation, followed Vigano’s “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council,” according to PBS.
While Vigano, who is Italian, has not issued a specific statement on his excommunication, he has been busy on X. On July 8, he used the platform to attack an upcoming blessing of a same-sex couple in the Italian beach resort of Fano by Father Giuseppe Cavoli.
In his post, Vigano listed Cavoli as “head of the LGBTQAI+ pastoral care.”
We learn from the press that next September 14 (on the feast day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross) a homosexual activist couple will be ‘blessed’ in Fano, who have also expressed their wish to adopt a child. The rite will be celebrated by Fr. Giuseppe Cavoli, head of the… pic.twitter.com/Yj2vn0AOJB
— Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò (@CarloMVigano) July 8, 2024
The LifeSite Catholic news outlet reported the couple as Hector Pautasso and Filippo Sanchi.
Vigano’s post continued, citing several clerics involved, as well as Pautasso and Sanchi as “the two unfortunates” and “pair of sodomites,” asking how the minutes spent blessing them will compare to “the eternity…[they] will spend in the flames of hell for having legitimised a sin that cries out for vengeance before God?”
In a tone underscoring his disillusionment with the Vatican, Vigano concluded, “This is the ‘church’ from which I have been declared in schism. It is not the Catholic Church, but it still seems to be the ‘church’ with which many of my brethren – bishops and priests – feel in full communion, and of which they recognize as the legitimate Pope the Argentinean Jesuit, a notorious heretic and promoter of the ‘inclusion’ of public sin.”
According to Voice of America, Vigano has also criticized Pope Francis for representing an “inclusive, immigrationist, eco-sustainable and gay-friendly” church.
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