Holiness, with this letter, I wish to offer for your
consideration the salient events of my personal and ministerial life, so that
you may get to know me and understand the intentions that motivate me.
I was born in Varese on January 16, 1941, into a deeply
Catholic family, thanks to which I was able to grow up practicing my Faith
daily, receiving a solid higher education, and maturing my vocation to the
Priesthood. I was ordained a priest on March 24, 1968, and, after a brief
period of parish ministry in Pavia, I was invited by the then-Substitute of the
Secretariat of State, Archbishop Giovanni Benelli, to enter the Pontifical
Ecclesiastical Academy, where I was admitted in October 1971. I served five Popes:
first in the Nunciatures of Baghdad, Kuwait, and London; then from January 1978
in the Secretariat of State for over ten years as Secretary to three
Substitutes; and then as Permanent Observer to the Council of Europe and the
European Parliament in Strasbourg (1988-1992). After my episcopal consecration,
received from the hands of John Paul II, I was sent to Nigeria as Apostolic
Nuncio (1992-1998), then recalled to the Secretariat of State as the Delegate
for Pontifical Representations (1998-2009). In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI
appointed me Secretary General of the Governorate of Vatican City State, and
then in 2011 as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America until 2016.
It was in my role as Delegate for Pontifical Representations
that I found myself handling the investigative processes for promotions to the
Episcopate, both in the Roman Curia and in the Nunciatures, as well as the most
confidential and delicate cases concerning Bishops and Cardinals, including the
dossier of Theodore McCarrick and other homosexual prelates. My actions in this
area led to my removal from the Secretariat of State and my transfer to the
Governorate as Secretary General, where Pope Benedict entrusted me with
combating mismanagement and the vast network of financial corruption. Even in
that case, despite having brought the Governorate’s budget, in the space of a
year and a half, from a deficit of 15 million Euros to a profit of 35 million,
and despite the Pope wanting to promote me to the Presidency of the Pontifical
Council for Economic Affairs of the Holy See, I was removed from the Roman
Curia and sent to Washington as Nuncio. My actions disturbed people who at the
time were very powerful and capable of overriding the will of Pope Benedict.
In 2016, exactly on my seventy-fifth birthday, Bergoglio
ordered me to leave the Nunciature in Washington and forbade me from returning
to the Vatican, where John Paul II had permanently assigned me an apartment; he
also forbade me from residing in the Roman residence for retired Nuncios that
was specially prepared by Pope Benedict. Before his death, Bergoglio also had
my Vatican citizenship and passport revoked; he prevented me from accessing the
healthcare services provided to members of the Diplomatic Service, even though
I had always regularly paid my contributions; and he ordered that my car be
removed from the Vatican Vehicle Registry and prevented the renewal of my
Vatican driver’s license, which I had held continuously since 1973, causing me
serious difficulties and effectively condemning me to house arrest.
In August 2018 I published the explosive memorandum about
Theodore McCarrick and the extensive network of corruption and complicity
within the Roman Curia, which directly involved Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself.
Subsequently, I lived for several years in secret locations, as Cardinal
Raymond Leo Burke advised me to do, given the threats I received and the fact
that my immediate predecessor in Washington, Nuncio Pietro Sambi, had died
under very suspicious circumstances after having had heated confrontations with
then-Cardinal McCarrick when informing him of the measures taken by Benedict
XVI to counter his crimes as a serial abuser.
The corruption, blackmail, deception, and betrayals I have
had to confront have led me to question the deep origins of the disastrous
state of the Catholic Church.
Looking back on the years of my formation, at the Lateran
University (1960-1964) and then at the Gregorian University (1965-1969), I had
to acknowledge that even before the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council,
the ideological framework of the entire curriculum – and of the teaching staff
– was already shaped by the new conciliar teachings, even though they had not
yet been approved. I remember well how in the Roman Seminaries clerical
discipline gave way to anarchy on all fronts, and how the superiors encouraged
the participation of seminarians in the conferences of the “new theologians” –
I am referring to those who, until a few years earlier, were viewed with
justified suspicion by the Holy Office, such as Küng, Ratzinger, Rahner,
Schillebeeckx, Congar, and with them that undergrowth of modernists who would
soon infest the university chairs and positions of responsibility in the
Vatican and in the dioceses. And as has always happened with all subversive
operations, the climate of general change, continuous reforms, and enormous
transformations was artificially created from above.
From my privileged vantage point as Secretary to the
Substitute, I witnessed the hemorrhaging of thousands of priestly and religious
vocations, while those Priests who did not want to support the new conciliar
path nor abandon the Tridentine Liturgy were ostracized, treated as heretics,
excommunicated or suspended a divinis, deprived of their salaries, and left to
die in solitude.
Reconsidering those events and reforms with today’s
disillusioned perspective and with the experience gained from other similar
events – not least the manipulation of the “Synod on the Family” that led to
Amoris Lætitia and, above all, the ongoing synodal revolution – I could not
help but see in all of this a mindset that had already prepared the subversive
action that would soon show its most disruptive effects.
The conciliar revolution followed a very precise script
under a single direction. Everything had to appear perfectly legal and in
accordance with the ordinary practice of the Church: every document promulgated
had to allow for both an orthodox interpretation with which to reassure the
Council Fathers as well as a heretical interpretation to be unleashed later.
These documents reveal the true intentions of those who maliciously used a
Council to impose doctrinal, moral, and liturgical errors that had previously
been condemned by the Roman Pontiffs.
During the long years of my ministry in the service of the
Apostolic See, my unconditional obedience to the Popes and my complete
absorption in the duties entrusted to me prevented me from understanding the
true revolution that was underway. How could I have imagined the subversion and
betrayal that were taking place? How could I have believed that the Supreme
Authority of the Church and the entire Episcopate could have become accomplices
of the most insidious enemies of Christ, whom Saint Pius X had identified as
the Modernists?
The “retirement” imposed on me in 2016 allowed me to
dedicate myself to prayer, study, and meditation on these serious problems. I
thus came to the realization that the Second Vatican Council, while maintaining
the characteristics of an Ecumenical Council, was intended to be used to
revolutionize the entire ecclesial structure and subvert it in all its
components: in doctrine, liturgy, discipline, canon law, and especially in its
hierarchical constitution. The very architects of Vatican II defined it as “the
1789 of the Church”, considering their subversive experiment to be “the Council
par excellence” thus demonstrating its heterogeneity compared to all other
Councils and the perennial Tradition of the Church.
Both Jorge Bergoglio and all the post-conciliar popes
proudly claimed their ideological continuity with Vatican II in order to
implement and legitimize all their “reforms.” Significantly, the entire
“post-conciliar magisterial corpus” establishes a new paradigm sanctioned by
the Council. Its fluid doctrines – constantly evolving, just as the Hegelian
synthesis they underpin is constantly evolving – are in clear rupture with the
two-thousand-year-old Magisterium of the Church prior to Vatican II.
The Council facilitated and contributed to the
de-Christianization of the West and the establishment, in the civil sphere, of
a new order conforming to the designs of Freemasonry. The plans of the Lodges
are well known, and we are aware that they involve infiltrating the Catholic
Church and attacking Her from within to achieve their predetermined goals.
The discussion surrounding Vatican II and the coup within the
Church led me to rediscover the Traditional Rite relatively recently.
Abandoning the Montini Mass marked a new phase in my episcopal Ministry. Along
with the Tridentine Mass (which was the one used at my priestly Ordination), I
discovered a hidden world of persecuted and marginalized priests, religious,
and seminarians. I considered it my apostolic duty to listen to their cry for
help, offering them a response that would restore their trust in the Church
from which they felt betrayed and cast out. This led me to establish the
Exsurge Domine Foundation, doing everything necessary to guarantee the means of
subsistence – both spiritual and material – and an authentically Catholic
ecclesial identity to those who, due to their fidelity to Tradition, have been
unjustly affected by the Bergoglian Terror.
Among those I support are the members of the Familia Christi
Priestly Fraternity, which was first founded and recognized within the
framework of Ecclesia Dei and then brutally destroyed and dissolved. Its
members have been victims of a terrible persecution – of which you cannot be
unaware – by the current Archbishop of Ferrara, Gian Carlo Perego, and the Holy
See itself. To these clerics, who turned to me after being abandoned to their
own devices without support, and to the candidates for the priesthood who have
joined them, I am providing my paternal care.
My denunciation of the apostasy of the conciliar and synodal
church and its rupture with Tradition, along with my well-founded doubts about
the legitimacy of Bergoglio’s “pontificate”— which I addressed in good
conscience, believing I was fulfilling my mandate as a Successor of the
Apostles — earned me an unjust, illegitimate, and ideologically motivated
excommunication. This canonical sanction, although I consider it null, has
serious ecclesial, institutional, and personal repercussions that deeply sadden
me and that stand in stark contrast to the impunity enjoyed by notoriously
heretical and corrupt cardinals, bishops, and priests.
Among these individuals, I cannot fail to mention Eleuterio
Vásquez Gonzales, known in Chiclayo as “Padre Lute,” who has been accused of
sexually abusing several young victims. The Holy See recently granted “padre
Lute” dismissal from the clerical state without a regular canonical trial,
effectively leaving him unpunished; while the victims’ canon lawyer, Monsignor
Ricardo Coronado Arrascue was removed from his legal functions, reduced to the
lay state, and investigated on defamatory charges. The entire affair has been
documented and explained to me in detail by Monsignor Coronado himself. This
case repeats the same modus operandi of Bergoglio previously adopted with
McCarrick and reveals an aberrant administration of justice by the Holy See.
In the face of the excommunication unjustly imposed upon me,
I declare that I am not a schismatic! By the grace of God, I am and will remain
a devout son of the Holy Roman Church and a faithful subject of the Roman
Pontificate. I firmly believe in the Apostolic Communion, and I recognize the
Petrine Primacy. I likewise recognize the necessity of belonging not only to
the invisible Mystical Body, but also to the institutional and visible
ecclesial body.
All the popes in history up to Pius XII have been indicted
along with me, placed on trial by the former Holy Office.
I have repeatedly wondered about the reason for the
persecution I am facing in the final phase of my earthly life; and whether my
conviction that I have acted rightly and according to God’s will might have
been mistaken. But however much I examine my actions as if I were standing
before Christ the Judge at the moment of my death, I find nothing morally
wrong. My accusers have merely followed a predetermined sentence, in order to
remove, by means of a “canonical” stratagem, the one who has denounced the infidelity
of the Catholic Hierarchy, proclaiming the Truth without restraint. A voice –
my own – that could not be silenced for the simple reason that no one has ever
been able to corrupt or blackmail me.
The officials of the former Holy Office were unable to
refute a single one of the arguments I presented. But it was enough for them
that I dared to criticize Vatican II and Jorge Mario Bergoglio to condemn me to
excommunication for the crime of schism, precisely when it is my love for the
Papacy and for the perennial Magisterium of the Church that exposes me to this
ruthless attack from the Vatican. I have never intended to separate myself from
the Apostolic Communion, nor to disobey the Vicar of Christ, nor to found a
“parallel church,” as some have accused me of wanting to do. On the contrary, I
believe that I could not have served the Papacy and the Holy Church better
than by speaking and acting as I did, facing the sufferings that resulted from
it in a spirit of union with the sufferings of the Divine Redeemer.
I am writing to you as an elderly Archbishop, out of love
for Our Lord and in fidelity to the Holy Church. I am writing to you to express
my anguish at seeing the Catholic Church eclipsed and disfigured by those who
occupy Her and hold power within Her. I cannot understand how, after the
disastrous experience of Jorge Bergoglio, you not only refuse to condemn his
errors and scandals, but also seize every opportunity to reaffirm your complete
continuity with them, in the name of a “synodal church” that adulterates the
hierarchical structure and monarchical nature that Our Lord willed for His
Church, and demolishes its entire doctrinal edifice.
I appeal to another Leo, the great Pope Vincenzo Gioacchino
Pecci, in the paradoxical situation of knowing that he would find my words
agreeable and praiseworthy, while the Bergoglian church has judged them to be
schismatic. What has happened in the Catholic Church in the space of a few
decades that I find myself condemned, and with me all the pre-conciliar Popes?
Quomodo facta est meretrix civitas fidelis? (Is 1:21).
The Faith I profess, the Tridentine Mass I celebrate, the
Councils and magisterial acts I accept, the Professio Fidei Tridentina and the
Jusiurandum Antimodernisticum that I have repeated so many times, are common to
the entire Church and unite me to Her. Of this One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic,
and Roman Church, unchanged in doctrine and morals, I declare myself a devoted
son and servant. That Papacy, likewise unchanged, is the Roman Papacy to which
I am obedient, for in the voice of the Vicar resounds the Truth of the Good
Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (Jn 10:11).
The authority of the Holy Keys must open the gates of the
Heavenly Jerusalem to the righteous and exclude the wicked, not the other way
around. This authority emanates from Our Lord (Rom 13:1) – and is vicarious of
His Authority. It is not possible for it to be used to legitimize what He
condemns, nor even less to condemn what He has commanded to be done. For this
reason, I cannot obey those who, constituted in authority, refuse to be
themselves subject and obedient to the Supreme Authority of God.
I think of the words of Saint Paul: “But even if we or an
angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you,
let him be anathema!” (Gal 1:8) From which Church am I separated? And what
authority has condemned me? The authority of the Vicar of Christ? Or that of
those who preach a different gospel from the one received from Our Lord?
I leave this letter in your hands, so that you may
understand the reasons for my positions and action, in the hope of encouraging
you to a profound examination of conscience and to a necessary and urgent
conversion of heart, mind, and will, mindful of the words of Our Lord: “Simon,
Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you, that
your faith may not fail; and when you have turned back, strengthen your
brothers” (Lk 22:31-32). I ask you to exercise your supreme Authority to confirm
the brethren in the Faith. I ask you to confirm me in the Faith: please do so.
Or tell me where I am erring and in what I am contradicting the Depositum Fidei
that you must safeguard and upon which Catholic Unity is based. It is on the
profession of the True Faith that I must be judged: therefore, tell me in what
way I have contradicted the Catholic Faith, and I will amend myself.
But there are no arguments that legitimize my
excommunication: it was imposed on me illegitimately, to destroy my person and
my action in defense of Catholic Truth; a sanction motivated not least by the
implacable hatred of Jorge Mario Bergoglio towards me. An injustice that
demands reparation for the grave damage caused to me and to the Cause of the
Holy Roman Church.
I trust that you will still want to grant me an audience
after the cancellation of the one that had been scheduled and then cancelled on
December 11, 2025. I will then be able to communicate to you in person some
matters of the utmost importance relating to my apostolic Ministry and the need
to ensure its continuity and future.
From this moment forward, I renew my unconditional intention
to fulfill every obligation imposed on me as a Successor of the Apostles.
In Christo Rege,
+ Carlo Maria Viganò
Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana, Apostolic Nuncio
Viterbo, 25 January 2026
In Conversione S. Pauli Apostoli
