Tradition for the Catholic Church is not a static or motionless ideal. The Church has always understood Tradition to be living, a vital wellspring that animates the life of the Church. Tradition is vibrant, raising the Church to an ever more complete understanding of the Truth. Misunderstandings of Tradition in the last century have led to painful divisions within the Church. Those misunderstandings have even led to severe wounds in the Church’s communion.
“The root of this schismatic act can be discerned in an incomplete and contradictory notion of Tradition,” wrote Pope St. John Paul II in 1988, when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was excommunicated for the illicit ordination of four bishops. On that occasion, Pope John Paul II underscored, “It is impossible to remain faithful to the Tradition while breaking the ecclesial bond with him to whom, in the person of the Apostle Peter, Christ himself entrusted the ministry of unity in his Church.”
Communion with Peter, love and respect for the Petrine ministry, is at the heart of what it means to be Catholic. It is with great sorrow that we receive the news of the rupture of that communion by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former apostolic nuncio to the United States. The archbishop announced on X, formerly Twitter, that he had been summoned to appear at an extrajudicial trial conducted by officials of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. He refused to appear for the proceedings and took to social media to denounce the Holy Father. The archbishop wrote, “I maintain that the errors and heresies to which (Pope Francis) adhered before, during, and after his election, along with the intention he held in his apparent acceptance of the papacy, render his elevation to the throne null and void.”
A tragic step
Archbishop Viganò’s inflammatory rhetoric and refusal to heed the summons are a profound tragedy. By branding the Second Vatican Council as a “cancer” and dismissing Pope Francis as “illegitimate,” Archbishop Viganò has positioned himself not as a shepherd guiding a flock but as a figure seeking separation from the Church he once served with distinction. It is a path that echoes the painful schism of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in the 1970s, yet Archbishop Viganò’s actions seem even more personal and singularly provocative and exceed boundaries Lefebvre did not cross.
Archbishop Viganò’s case is a sobering reminder of the delicate nature of communion in an age that fosters factions and ideology.
Archbishop Viganò’s behavior — publicly observable in his social media posts and frequent missives — has grown increasingly erratic since his first public attack on Pope Francis in 2018, related to the McCarrick scandal. His once-respected efforts to root out corruption stand in stark contrast to his current trajectory of self-imposed alienation and vitriolic declarations. Archbishop Viganò’s record as a diligent and respected servant of the Holy See testifies to his capabilities and amplifies the tragic nature of his current dissent.
Schism is a grave matter in the Church, that severs the faithful from sacramental grace and communion. It is a canonical crime with eternal implications, and the Church must address it with the utmost seriousness.
The comparison to Archbishop Lefebvre, who, despite his controversial theological views on the Mass and the Second Vatican Council, remained active in apostolic work, only underscores the gravity of Archbishop Viganò’s situation. Unlike Lefebvre, who founded a community, Archbishop Viganò has retreated into isolation, further distancing himself from ecclesial communion.
Only communion cures alienation
The Church’s credibility depends on the consistent and fair application of her law and doctrine. But one does not need to contend that the See of Peter is vacant, nor that the pope is a heretic or a schismatic, to take issue with this or that decision Pope Francis has made. Other bishops have critiqued the Holy Father without compromising their communion with the Church.
Shortly after the 1988 excommunication of Archbishop Lefebvre, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then-head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave an address to the bishops of Chile on the nature of communion with the Church. In that address, he told the bishops, “The truth which is marginalized becomes autonomous, remains detached from the whole of the ecclesiastical structure, and a new movement then forms itself around it.” There are Catholics, especially in the U.S., who are feeling alienated. However, the solution to that alienation can only be found in fidelity and by remaining in communion.
Archbishop Viganò’s case is a sobering reminder of the delicate nature of communion in an age that fosters factions and ideology. We must resist the ever-present temptation to a reductive ecclesial vision that shrinks everything to simple political narratives. We must pray for the archbishop’s return to unity and devote our own talents to build up unity within the Church.