Carlo Maria Viganò

Viganò with US President Barack Obama

Archbishop's coat of arms of Carlo Maria Viganò

Carlo Maria Viganò (born January 16, 1941 in Varese , Italy ) is an Italian clergyman and emeritus diplomat of the Holy See .

Life

Carlo Maria Viganò received the sacrament of ordination for the diocese of Pavia on March 24, 1968 . Viganò was appointed Doctor of Laws PhD .

In 1973 Carlo Maria Viganò entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He worked in the Apostolic Nunciatures in Iraq and Great Britain and from 1978 to 1989 in the Vatican State Secretariat . Viganò was appointed permanent observer at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on April 4, 1989 .

On 3 April 1992 appointed him Pope John Paul II. To Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana and ordered him to the apostolic nuncio in Nigeria . Pope John Paul II donated him episcopal ordination on April 26, 1992 ; Co- consecrators were Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano and the Archbishop of Krakow , Cardinal Franciszek Macharski . On April 4, 1998, Pope John Paul II appointed him a delegate at the Vatican State Secretariat. On July 16, 2009 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him . in succession to Renato Boccardo as Secretary General of the Governorate of Vatican City .

On October 19, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him. to the Apostolic Nuncio in the USA. This was preceded by the publication of leaked letters (for example one from March 27, 2011) in which Viganò referred to his efforts to fight corruption and nepotism and expressed his desire to continue in his office. His term of office ended with the appointment of his successor Christophe Pierre as Apostolic Nuncio in the USA on April 12, 2016.

Conflicts with Pope Francis

In connection with the account of sexual abuse from the Cardinal stand retired Washington Old Archbishop Theodore McCarrick and the cover-up scandal involving his offense of August 25, 2018 was at night released a elfseitiges letter of Archbishop Viganò in the United States, in which he claims that Pope Benedict XVI. In 2009 or 2010, McCarrick imposed severe canon sanctions and a life of prayer and penance, and his successor, Pope Francis, accused McCarrick of repealing them in 2013 and making McCarrick one of his advisors, despite the fact that he himself spoke about the McCarrick's offense had been informed. In his letter he urged Pope Francis and several cardinals to resign from office.

The Würzburg weekly newspaper Die Tagespost published Viganò's allegations against Pope Francis in German translation as an "exclusive publication". On October 7, 2018, Cardinal Marc Ouellet sharply criticized Viganò's allegations. In his reply to Ouellet, Viganò again criticized the Pope and described homosexuality in the clergy as a "contagious plague". To complain about victims of abuse , but not to name "homosexuality as the main cause of countless sexual abuse", is "hypocrisy".

Viganò is considered to be one of the loudest and most militant critics and opponents of Pope Francis.

Conspiracy theory on the corona crisis

Carlo Maria Viganò is the author of an appeal from May 7, 2020 with the Latin title "Veritas liberabit vos!" ( The truth will set you free , according to Jn 8,32  EU ), which is published on the Internet portal kathisch.de of the German Bishops Conference Conglomerate of conspiracy myths and pseudoscience ”. It was signed by several opponents of Pope Francis, including the German Curia Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller and other Catholic clergy, journalists, doctors and lawyers. The pamphlet complains that under the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rights and fundamental freedoms of many citizens are “disproportionately and unjustifiably restricted”; Public health should not become an alibi "to free civil authorities from their duty to act wisely for the common good". Doubts are expressed about the actual risk of contagion of the coronavirus and reporting on the pandemic is referred to as " alarmism ". The containment measures taken encouraged the interference of "foreign powers" with serious social and political consequences; “Supranational units” with “unclear intentions” strove to “create a world government” with the help of a corona fear. The Roman Curia Cardinal Robert Sarah , who was named as a co-signer, has since distanced himself from it.

The Essen Vicar General Klaus Pfeffer declared that everyone who signed this appeal is exposing themselves; He was stunned which “crude conspiracy theories without facts and evidence, combined with right-wing populist struggle rhetoric that sounds frightening”, are being spread in the name of church and Christianity and supported by Müller.

The German Bishops' Conference distanced itself from the group of signatories on May 10, 2020. The chairman, Bishop Georg Bätzing , stated that the German Bishops 'Conference basically does not comment on calls by individual bishops outside Germany, and emphasized that the assessment of the pandemic by the Bishops' Conference was fundamentally different from the text. The German bishops had declared on the corona pandemic that the restrictions, including those for church services, were "sensible and responsible". At the same time, they believed that the restrictions could be relaxed again with responsibility and a sense of proportion. Ruhr bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck wrote on Facebook that “the church could make a clear contribution to overcoming the Corona crisis by using solidarity as a clear sign of determination to work for the common good and social justice”. This contradicts the positioning of "those populists and other conspiracy theorists who want to see all efforts to contain the pandemic as a pretext to establish a hateful technocratic tyranny and to wipe out Christian civilization". This must be clearly opposed by the church, "regardless of who formulates such". The Archbishop of Hamburg , Stefan Heße , and the We Are Church movement also criticized the paper. Gebhard Fürst , Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart , explained: "Anyone who reinterprets the efforts of politics to protect human lives from the coronavirus into a dubious world conspiracy is playing with fire."

After Rabbi Jehoshua Ahrens was shocked in an interview with the Jüdische Allgemeine that conspiracy theories were also spreading in church circles, Viganò sent him a letter on May 22, 2020, in which he discussed the work of the media and doctors in the Corona pandemic as well as the criticism of the call with states of Nazi tyranny up to the Holocaust compared . Viganò wrote: “Even then, the mass or mainstream media extolled the powerful and kept silent about their crimes; even then, doctors and scientists were placing their work in the service of a delusional plan of rule; Even then, anyone who dared to speak out was accused of spreading 'conspiracy theories'. "

Support from President Donald Trump

On June 7, 2020, Viganò wrote an open letter to the American President Donald Trump , in which he described the opponents of Trump as "children of darkness" who hold "strategic positions in government, politics, business and the media"; They wanted to "destroy the family and the nation, exploit workers for the benefit of their inadequate wealth and promote internal divisions and wars", had shown their true intentions in the Corona crisis and fueled social unrest, the ultimate goal of which was the overthrow of President Trump. Trump was delighted with this letter on Twitter.

The Vatican journalist Christopher Lamb called in Domradio of the archbishopric of Cologne 's letter Viganò as "church and makes political move against the Holy See ," suggesting the praise Donald Trump for the Pope critics Vigano as an attack on the Pope , the Catholics in the United States before the loyalty question between the Pope and the President.

Honors

• 2000: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic

Web links

• Entry on Carlo Maria Viganò on catholic-hierarchy.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nomina del Segretario Generale del Governatorato dello Stato della Città del Vaticano , in: Holy See Press Office: Daily Bulletin of July 16, 2009.
2. ↑ Spiegel.de: Bishop denounces corruption in the Vatican (January 27, 2012)
3. ^ Andreas English : The plot of the cardinals , Hamburger Abendblatt.de June 4, 2012
4. ^ Nomina del Nunzio Apostolico negli Stati Uniti d'America. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , April 12, 2016, accessed April 12, 2016 (Italian). 
5. ^ The letter from Ex-Nuncio Viganò exclusively in German translation. The daily mail of August 29, 2018, accessed on September 11, 2018
6. ↑ Gudrun Sailer: Vatican: Open letter from Cardinal Ouellet on the recent allegations against the Holy See. Vatican News of October 7, 2018
7. ↑ Archbishop Vigano: Pope should "confess errors". kathisch.de from October 19, 2018
8. ^ Felix Neumann: Archbishop Viganò: From the Nuncio to the conspiracy theorist. In: kathisch.de , 8 May 2020 online
9. ↑ Veritas liberabit vos! (Official website) on veritasliberabitvos.info from May 8, 2020, accessed on May 11, 2020
10. ^ Felix Neumann: Archbishop Viganò: From the Nuncio to the conspiracy theorist . In: kathisch.de , 8 May 2020 online
11. ↑ kath.net: Veritas liberabit vos! May 7, 2020.
12. ↑ katholisch.de : Vicar General Pepper: Bishops spread conspiracy theories. May 9, 2020 online
13. ^ German bishops at a distance from Cardinal Müller's appeal , domradio.de , May 10, 2020 online
14. ↑ Cardinal Müller defends signature - Bätzing's unusual criticism - Bishops' conference distances itself from Müller's conspiracy theory. Kirche + Leben Netz - The Catholic Online Magazine, May 10, 2020, accessed on May 12, 2020 . 
15. ^ After growing criticism from German bishops and Catholics: Cardinal Müller defends the signature of Viganò's Corona document. kathisch.de, May 10, 2020, accessed on May 12, 2020 . 
16. ↑ Bishop Fürst criticizes the call against corona restrictions. www.neckar-chronik.de, May 11, 2020
17. ↑ Ayala Goldmann: "Any comment is superfluous". Jewish General of May 27, 2020 ( online )
18. ↑ Quoted in: Steffen Zimmermann: Corona Manifesto: Viganò defends himself against accusation of conspiracy theory. In: kathisch.de , May 26, 2020; There is also a link to the entire text of the letter. on-line
19. ↑ US President comments on Open Letter on Twitter. Trump is happy about praise from Archbishop Viganò , kathisch.de , June 11, 2020 [1]
20. ↑ Vatican journalist on Trump's praise for new Viganó letter. An attack on the Holy See. Interview by Renardo Schlegelmilch with Christopher Lamb on Domradio Cologne, June 12, 2020 [2]