Dear friends of Duc in altum, Archbishop Viganò himself now responds in the debate initiated by Fabio Battiston with his article “Questions in the Margins of Archbishop Viganò’s Statements.” His Excellency has sent me his contribution which I offer you here and which contributes to clarifying matters. Among other things, the Archbishop writes: “None of us has the intention of “accusing our own mother” but rather of defending her from those who, in the absence of the King, rage against His Bride, betraying their sacred duties and the solemn oaths which they have sworn. Let’s be careful not to consider the Church responsible for the faults of her Ministers: she is holy because she is the Mystical Body of Christ, and that which is corruptible does not belong to her […]. To believe that it would be possible to create a church according to our own desires is an illusion and a deception: our duty as Catholics is to remain in the Citadel and to be ready to be ready to give our lives, using all the means at our disposal to oppose the assault of the enemy and the subversive action of the betrayers who have penetrated within her.”
If you would like to respond, here is the email address: blogducinaltum@gmail.com
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Spelunca latronum
by Carlo Maria Viganò
On October 6, at Duc in altum, a comment was published titled “Questions in the Margins of Archbishop Viganò’s Statements.”
The author writes: “Is it acceptable that those who utter very grave accusations against the Pope consider it absolutely logical, I would say almost normal, to continue to profess their faith within an institution they consider to be demonic?”
The accusations made against Bergoglio do not in anyway affect membership in the Church of Christ, of which Our Lord is the Head. And I have never affirmed that the Church has become a “demonic institution” – it is rather her counterfeit version which has been superimposed upon her by the betrayal of her highest leaders. The thing that ought to scandalize people and be considered unheard of, is not the “very grave accusations against the Pope,” which seem to me to be well founded, but rather the fact that he who exercises his authority in the Church reveals himself to be an enemy of Christ and of the flock that He has entrusted to him, accompanied by the deafening silence of the Hierarchy, which indeed is his accomplice.
The Church is not an association that one can decide to abandon when one does not agree with the one in charge. Rather, the contrary is true: the one who is the head of the Church has the duty to conform himself, verbo et exemplo [by word and example], to that which Christ has ordered him to teach and to guard in his stead. Christ has not given him an absolute power with which to destroy the Church and diperse the faithful.
It is not Catholics who must leave a Church that has become heretical in her hierarchy, but rather the wolves in sheep’s clothing and the false prophets, who abuse the vicarious authority of God and usurp a power to use it against the very purpose for which it has been established by Our Lord.
The author continues: “[Is it acceptable] that a Pope with his cardinals shows absolute indifference towards those who attack the Vicar of Christ on earth in this way? […] But it is above all the silence of the hierarchy, beginning with the highest office, that tastes monstruous. It is as if, in a family, the children would daily see their mother being accused of immorality and dishonesty and ignorance. At the same time, however, it is as if they would also observe with dismay that this woman not only does not react in the face of such infamies but she even shows a total indifference to what is being said against her.”
The indifference shown by Bergoglio and his Sanhedrin towards the multiple well-argued denunciations of the growing apostasy – “how can we fail to mention in this regard the deafening papal silence in the face of the dubia issued by some cardinals about various points of the [Apostolic Exhortation] Amoris Laetitia?” – shows that these men are not concerned with defending the honor of the Bride of Christ. On the contrary, it confirms their deliberate intention to dishonor her, to expose her to humiliation, to present her as a slave after denying her royal honors that are due her. And this is what I affirmed in my interview with Michael J. Matt at the Catholic Identity Conference:
What son would watch impassively the humiliation of his mother, letting his servants expose her to infamy and vituperation, strip her of the triple crown and royal garments, steal her jewels and sell her goods, force her to live with thieves and prostitutes, even take away her royal title and abandon her to degradation?
None of us has the intention of “accusing our own mother” but rather of defending her from those who, in the absence of the King, rage against His Bride, betraying their sacred duties and the solemn oaths which they have sworn. Let’s be careful not to consider the Church responsible for the faults of her Ministers: she is holy because she is the Mystical Body of Christ, and that which is corruptible does not belong to her. But just as the Most Blessed Virgin participated in the Passion of Her Divine Son at the foot of the Cross, so also the Church – in her individual members down the centuries and in her entire body in the end times – must live the passio Ecclesiae, following her Head along the way of Calvary. When Our Lord threw the merchants out of the temple and overturned the moneychangers’ tables, he said: “Is it not written: My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples? But you have made it a den of thieves!” (Mk 11:16). Did the Divine Bridegroom intend to outrage his Bride by calling her a “den of thieves?” or rather did he not intend to denounce and put an end to the humiliation to which she had been exposed because of the wicked merchants?
We are children of the Church because of Holy Baptism and the Profession of Faith in its integrity: we have the right and the duty to remain and to fight, because she is the one Ark of Salvation. Conversely, those who ought to be thrown out – and who already are not part of the Mystical Body – are those who daily wound her by teaching heretical doctrines and giving scandal by their immoral and perverse conduct.
To believe that it would be possible to create a church according to our own desires is an illusion and a deception: our duty as Catholics is to remain in the Citadel and to be ready to be ready to give our lives, using all the means at our disposal to oppose the assault of the enemy and the subversive action of the betrayers who have penetrated within her. When the King returns, we will be judged on the basis of our fidelity and on the battle which, as soldiers of Christ, we have conducted in defense of the Church against her enemies. To be silent about their presence and their nefarious work would make us their accomplices.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
9 October 2022
Dominica XVIII Post Pentecosten
First published at Duc in Altum