Strident Pope Francis critic faces schism trial

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò preaching in 2014

The Vatican is putting Viganò on trial for the "denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis"

(Image credit: Charles Rex Arbogast-Pool / Getty Images)

published 21 June 2024

What happened

Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò said Thursday the Vatican was putting him on trial for the "crime of schism" and "denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis." Viganò, a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S., has denounced the pope in increasingly harsh terms — a liberal "servant of Satan," for example — since publicly calling on him to resign in 2018.

Viganò, 83, said he "regards the accusations against me as an honor." Since 2016, he has "slowly moved closer to more conservative and eventually conspiratorial wings of the church and American society," Religion News Service said.

Trials for schism, or rupture with Catholic "unity" under the pope, are "exceedingly rare," The Washington Post said. But following years of increasingly "vitriolic attacks" from conservative clerics, Pope Francis is drawing a line.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.