Monday, July 8, 2024

The Viganò ‘schism’ in this post-Vatican II moment


The Viganò ‘schism’ in this post-Vatican II moment

VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
La Croix International [Montrouge Cedex, France]

July 4, 2024

By Massimo Faggioli

Signs of the timesThe Viganò phenomenon highlights a significant post-Vatican II rift within Catholicism. While Viganò’s conspiracy theories are troubling, the main concern is the silent schism of disengagement and potential backlash against synodal decisions.

Will there be a Viganò schism? Surely not a schism like the ones in the handbooks of Church history. But news that the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had summoned Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò to answer to charges of schism reveals something of this Catholic moment and Catholic culture.

From 2011-2016, the Italian archbishop served as apostolic nuncio to the United States, and in August 2018, he accused Pope Francis of abuse cover-up in an attempt to overthrow his papacy. Since then, he has released a series of increasingly extreme statements about the pope, the Vatican, and the authority of the Second Vatican Council from undisclosed locations and via the internet. He has also pushed conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia, and Ukraine and aligned himself with Donald Trump.Further reading: A house divided…

The Code of Canon Law, canon 751, defines schism as “the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” For a communion like the Catholic Church, which values unity and obedience to the pope very

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