The Heretic and the Schismatic

I'm not Roman Catholic, but I find myself intrigued at times by their language and claims and machinations. As a regular, "Protestant" Christian, some of this language is not typically heard among believers with whom I fellowship (for example: "as bishop and successor of the apostles," "this one Ark of Salvation," Christ's "vicar on earth," "the one true Church"). So I read through this statement of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who has refused to appear before a Vatican tribunal to answer charges that he is in schism with the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). He's fortunate they don't torture and burn people at the stake anymore!

I learned that Viganò believes that the Freemasons infiltrated the RCC in a plot that began in the 19th century and was carried out in the 20th century, particularly through the Second Vatican Council. “Protestant winds" and critical studies on the Bible that the RCC had resisted had now invaded the RCC and replaced "Her." The RCC is now headed by a pope (Pope Francis), or rather anti-pope, whom Viganò refers to as simply "Bergoglio," and a "conciliar hierarchy, which proclaims itself Catholic but embraces a faith different from that constantly taught for 2,000 years by the Catholic Church," which "belongs to another entity and therefore does not represent the true Church of Christ." This other entity is "conciliar, ecumenical, synodal, inclusive, immigrationist, eco-sustainable, and gay-friendly" as well as heretical.

Viganò states that the RCC hierarchy is corrupt and controlled, manipulated, and coerced with blackmail, the same modus operandi used in Freemasonry which they had described in detail before infiltrating the RCC. He notes that this "mirrors that adopted in civil institutions, where the representatives of the people, especially at the highest levels, are largely blackmailable because they are corrupt and perverted." Jeffrey Epstein, anyone? Isn't this how the Deep State operates? It's also interesting when you consider that the U.S. government was created by several Freemasons. The Central Intelligence Agency was founded by members of secret societies like Skull and Bones and probably also Freemasons. Harry Truman, who signed the law that created the CIA and other components of the Deep State like the NSA, was a 33rd degree Freemason.

Also of interest was a quote included by Viganò of the words of the Virgin Mary at La Salette –

“Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”

The Protestant reformers like Luther and Calvin said that this had already happened in their day, and even earlier Christians like Bernard of Clairvaux in the twelfth century had called Pope Leo the Antichrist. Whether it happened centuries ago or has only happened in recent decades, it is interesting to see even RCC sources coming into agreement with Protestants on this point. (I'm not aware of whether the Orthodox consider the RCC as antichrist, though they do certainly consider them to be schismatic).

Apparently Bergoglio has abolished the apostolic title of "Vicar of Christ" and chooses to define himself simply as "Bishop of Rome." I applaud this move as being more biblical, although Viganò laments that it constitutes "in some way a deminutio of the papacy itself, an attack against the divine constitution of the Church, and a betrayal of the Munus petrinum." And the great etcetera, and so forth. He complains that even Pope Paul VI, who convened the abominable Vatican II, stated:

“The Pope […] is undoubtedly the most serious obstacle on the path of ecumenism” (Speech to the Secretary for the Promotion of Christian Unity, 28 April 1967).

Again, I, as a Protestant, agree with the Pope on this; so if you disagree with this, are you more or less faithful than I am? Viganò decries that Paul VI "dramatically laid aside the Tiara." According to Wikipedia:

"At the end of the second session of the Second Vatican Council in 1963, Paul VI descended the steps of the papal throne in St. Peter's Basilica and ascended the altar, on which he laid the tiara as a sign of the renunciation of human glory and power in keeping with the innovative spirit of the council."

For Viganò, this denies "the primacy of Peter" and "the Catholic doctrine on the papacy defined solemnly and infallibly by the First Vatican Council." The horror!

Viganò then boldly turns the table on Pope Francis, proclaiming:

"I accuse Jorge Mario Bergoglio of heresy and schism, and I ask that he be judged as a heretic and schismatic and removed from the throne which he has unworthily occupied for over 11 years."

Since Bergoglio was a heretic to begin with, he was unable to assume the Papacy and is therefore not actually the Pope. He insistently urged inoculation with an experimental gene serum produced using aborted fetuses, declaring that using the "vaccine" was morally permissible, leading to serious adverse effects, sterility, and death in the millions of the faithful. Viganò also denounces the secret agreement between the Holy See and the Chinese government, which has forced the RCC "to accept the government appointment of bishops, the control of liturgical celebrations, and limitations on its freedom of preaching". Meanwhile, "Catholics loyal to the Apostolic See are persecuted with impunity by the Beijing government" and the Vatican stays complicitly silent.

Viganò would probably agree with Bergoglio about there being too much faggottry in the seminaries. Nor does he blast the pope over the many children molested in recent decades by pedophile priests who were then protected and transferred to other dioceses with fresh victims, for which the RCC is having to pay out millions (now billions?). Those crimes happened mainly under his predecessors.

I would urge my Christian brothers and sisters who fellowship with Rome, which the Book of Revelation symbolizes as "Mystery Babylon," to do as the Holy Spirit pleaded with God's people in Babylon:

"Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins." (Revelation 18:4).