Commentary and Biography by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

TRADUCTION FRANÇAISE

Archbishop Viganò who until 2018 did not publicly express himself against Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and who recognized him as validly elected in the Conclave of 2013, even though Pope Benedict XVI had never fulfilled the terms of canon 332 §2, that is, had never renounced the Petrine Minus, has now made clear the path he has been on since 2018.

For it was in that year, in the late summer that he publicly denounced Bergoglio for protecting the serial sexual abuser Cardinal McCarrick, Kingmaker of the USA Episcopal Hierarchy and CIA Asset.

Lately he has espoused in public the theory that Bergoglio never validly accepted his election, by putting forward a theory similar to that proposed by the Dominican Father des Lauriers (see here for reference), namely, that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio never had the intention of accepting his election to be the Pope for the good of the Church, but always intended something uncatholic, that is, to destroy Her.

Today’s news is not a surprise to those who understand the internal logic of sedevacantism, as I detailed yesterday in my article, The Delirium of the New Sedevacantists. Yet, like all Catholics, I am sad to report that the Archbishop has decided to seek the appearance of a solution for Christ’s Church, ignoring Her most fundamental hallmark of authenticity, which is Her canonical and juridical consistency and authority.

So, since this decision of the Archbishop to found a seminary and institutionalize his ilicit ordinations of men to the priesthood (and perhaps to the Episcopacy) is nothing but the path to schism from Christ’s Church, a schism which will lead another generation out of communion with Jesus Christ, I will briefly review the life and history of the Archbishop, so we can understand how he came to this point in his iife.

A Biography of Archbishop Carlo Mario Viganò

Archbishop Mario Carlo Viganò was born on the 16th of January, in 1941. In that year, the Kingdom of Italy was involved in the Second World War, and took her side as a belligerent among the Axis Powers. Mussolini, the de facto Dictator of Italy, declared war on France on June 10th, of the previous year, as the French government fled to Bordeaux to escape entrapment by the German Wehrmacht which was rapidly occupying the whole of Norther France.

Mario Carlo was born at Varese, in norther Lombardy, not far from the Swiss border, the home town also of Cardinal Attilio Nicora, who was born there just 4 years before.

He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Pavia by Bishop Carlo Allorio (whose episcopal lineage is from Gustav Adolf Cardinal von Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, a nobleman) on the Feast of Saint Gabriel the Archangel, March 24, 1968. After a long career in the Roman Curia Pope John Paul II appointed him, on the 14th of April, 1989, as the Vatican Permanent Observer to the Council of Europe, the international human rights treaty organization for European states.

The same, Pope John Paul then raised him to the dignity of a Bishop, on April 4, 1992, some three years later. The Bishop took the titular dignity of Ulpiana, a former episcopal see known as Justinia Secunda Ulpiana, which was in a local which is now found in the territory of Kosovo, the disputed province of the Republic of Serbia.

This decision of the Bishop shows how political a man he was, as the Kosovo conflict raged on the world stage. It was also a strange decision, seeing that on the same day Pope John Paul II had named him Apostolic pro-Nuncio to Nigeria. In my mind, this indicates that he was already giving signs that he wanted to be elsewhere than where his superior wanted him, that is, in the lime light.

He was ordained in the new rite as a Bishop on April 26th of the same year, by Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Sodano, Secretary of State, and Cardinal Marcharski of Warsaw (none of whose episcopal lineages derive directly from the House of Rampolla), and therefore is most likely not a member of the Mafia of St. Gallen.

After 6 years in service in Nigeria, Bishop Viganò was promoted to the Secretariate of State, as a minor official, which appears to be a demotion, requested by Cardinal Sodano.

There he remained in obscurity until Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Secretary General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State on the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in 2009.

But even here, something seems to have gone awry, since he resigned that position a little 2 years after having entered it, so that a little more than a month later, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI might be able to appoint him Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America on the 19th of October, 2011 A. D.. He held that last post until he reached the age of retirement, when he consigned his office on April 12, 2016 to the anti-Pope Bergoglio, as just another of those clerics who ignored the letter and spirit of the Code of Canon Law regarding papal renunciations. — During his time as Nuncio, he has admitted in writing that he remained silent about cases of pedophilia and was unable to bring these to the attention of Pope Benedict XVI, when he at last did decide to act. He accused the now Archbishop Georg Gänswein of intercepting his letter.

Just two years later, having been refused an apartment at the Vatican, he began his public crusade against Bergoglio by accusing him of an elaborate plot to rehabilitate Cardinal McCarrick. His accusations stunned the Catholic World, since he was the first high cleric in modern times to break the code of silence and omerta in the Vatican to speak about its internal corruption. For that I praised and do praise him highly.

From thence on, his name appears frequently in the news here at FromRome.Info. You can read the articles naming him, here.

Since that time he has vigorously sustained that the Conclave of 2013 is valid, and refused to communicate even in writing with those who defended Pope Benedict XVI’s claim to the papacy.

My Personal Comments

First, to all the young men who respect my opinion, and who are thinking of becoming priests, I will tell you openly to have nothing to do with the Archbishop or his seminary, since to be a priest of the Most High God, one must first be a priest of God in a canonically valid manner, not simply a sacramentally valid manner. It is better to wait for the next papacy, which is not far off, than to stain and destroy one’s irreparable personal reputation by such an association. This does not require heroic self sacrifice on your part, as there are many men in the history of the Church who have delayed or foregone ordination as priests rather than chose such an illegal method.

Second, to those Catholics who would want to know what I think of financially supporting the Archbishop, I would reply in the same manner, for it is a grave mortal sin to financially support schism or support personally someone who has chosen to violate the laws of Christ’s Church, rather than enduring persecution like so many faithful servants of the Lord Jesus throughout the ages, many of which had simply to retire into obscurity and endure opprobrium until death.

Third, however, I believe this decision of the Archbishop will put the Cardinals in the next conclave into an even greater necessity of confronting how to fix all the problems arising from the pontificate of Pope Francis.

Thus, not only the Sutri Initiative, or the open apostasy in the German Church, but the move by the Archbishop to found a seminary and ordain priests and bishops, will figure large in the minds of the Cardinal electors, and incline them to avoid open schism in the Church. They will only be able to do this by electing someone who is both very Catholic and very mindful of Church Law and who personally has the character to reconcile clerics in the truth, while showing patience to their personal human motivations.

The next Papacy will thus have to confront these issues and restore the Ancient Roman Rite, while putting an end to the divisions raised not only by Pope Francis, but by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II.

The Church is undeniably on a clear course to self destruction. We need a pope who can see and recognize that, and who has the character strong enough to lean hard against the till of the Barque of St. Peter, so as to turn Her around 180 degrees, back on the heading to Christ’s Kingdom and the Blessed Virgin’s safe Harbour, as Saint John Bosco saw in vision (see article below).

In many of these things, Pope Benedict XVI showed the way forward.

As we approach the first anniversary of his passing, may the Lord God send the Holy Ghost to temper the minds of men and convince more and more Catholics to work for the restoration of the Church in Tradition, Truth and Unity.

Saint John Bosco, Saint Francis and all the Saints of the Roman Church! Pray for us! Pray for us with all your devotion!

Here is the official copy of the Archbishop’s declaration, which FromRome.info publishes for record, not as an endorsement: