Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, long known as the most prominent internal critic of Pope Francis, didn’t wait long to deliver a blistering postmortem on the now-deceased pontiff’s controversial legacy. Just hours after news broke of Pope Francis’s death, Viganò released a searing statement accusing Francis of everything from theological heresy to political subversion—and once again, he didn’t pull a single punch.
Francis excommunicated Viganò in July 2024 for the charge of schism, citing the archbishop’s repeated denunciations of Vatican leadership, rejection of papal authority, and open hostility to the direction of the Church under Francis. At the time, Viganò framed his excommunication as a badge of honor, calling the pope a false shepherd aligned with globalist interests like the World Economic Forum, socialist agendas, and unrestricted mass immigration.
Now, with Francis gone, Viganò is drawing a theological and moral line in the sand.
In his new statement, Viganò accused Francis—whom he refers to by his birth name, Jorge Bergoglio—of presiding over a spiritual catastrophe. Citing a 2018 interview with atheist journalist Eugenio Scalfari in which Francis allegedly denied the existence of Hell, Viganò writes:
“These heretical ravings are directly opposed to the Catholic Faith… His soul has therefore not disappeared, nor has it dissolved: he will have to account for the crimes he has committed.”
The former nuncio to the United States doesn’t stop there. He charges that Francis “usurped the throne of Peter in order to destroy the Catholic Church and loose so many souls,” and warns that the real danger now lies ahead—within the college of cardinals, many of whom were handpicked by Francis himself.
In 2018, Eugenio Scalfari reported the words that Bergoglio supposedly confided to him about his vision of the afterlife:
“Sinful souls are not punished: those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and join the ranks of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and… pic.twitter.com/64JGhSDrjQ
— Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò (@CarloMVigano) April 21, 2025
Viganò argues that the Church is teetering on the brink of a “synodal revolution”—a radical restructuring of Church governance and doctrine that will continue unless faithful clergy rise up to oppose the post-Francis regime. He blames not only the liberal cardinals who support Francis’s legacy but also the so-called conservatives who failed to challenge the legitimacy of his papacy.
As the Vatican prepares for its next conclave, Viganò’s fiery words serve as both a condemnation and a warning: if the Church doesn’t correct course, the consequences for the faith—and for souls—will be dire.
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