Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former Papal Nuncio, Sends exclusive letter of support to Coalition For Canceled Priests
Canceled Priest Event
Dubuque, Iowa
September 22, 2021
by Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
Dear brothers Priests,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I tell you all nothing that you do not already know, when I say that the Church of Christ is undergoing a very serious crisis, and that the Catholic Hierarchy has failed in the serious obligations of its apostolic mission and is in a large part corrupt. The origins of this crisis and this apostasy are now apparent even to the most moderate. They lay in having wanted to align the Church with the mentality of the world, whose prince, let us not forget, is Satan: princeps mundi hujus (Jn 12:31).
As Catholics, we know and believe that the Holy Church is indefectible; that is, that it cannot be overwhelmed by the gates of Hell, through the promise of Our Lord: portæ inferi non prævalebunt (Mt 16: 18). But what we see happening shows us the reality of a terrible situation, in which a corrupt part of the Hierarchy – which I call the deep church for the sake of brevity – has totally surrendered itself to the deep state. It is a betrayal that places the Shepherds and the highest levels of the Church before a very grave moral responsibility and necessitates courageous choices by priests and laity that at other times would be difficult to adopt and justify. We are faced with a war, an epochal clash, in which our generals not only are not leading the army to face the enemy but are actually ordering it to lay down its weapons and surrender unconditionally, driving away the most courageous soldiers and punishing the most loyal officials. The entire general staff of the Catholic Church has revealed itself to be allied with the enemy and is itself an enemy of those it instead ought to be defending: enemy of Christ and of those who glory in serving under His banner.
How can we understand, in the light of Revelation, this situation that is tremendous and unique in the entire history of the Church? We must have first of all a supernatural gaze, with which to understand that the present events are permitted by God, and that in any case they will never succeed in overwhelming the Church. The great apostasy has been foretold in the Sacred Scriptures and should not catch us unprepared. Enlightened by the words of the Apocalypse of Saint John and by approved private revelations, we can understand that the end times are necessary in order to finally separate the wheat from the weeds, permitting us to recognize who stands with Christ and who is against Him. We must likewise understand that the tribulations that we find ourselves undergoing are also the just punishment for decades – I dare say centuries – of infidelities of Catholics and part of the Hierarchy: private and public infidelities, rooted in human respect, in fearfulness, in moral and doctrinal deviations, and in compromises with the secular mentality and with the enemies of Our Lord. If we consider that the French Revolution was the punishment of God for Louis XIV’s failure to consecrate the insignia of the Kingdom to Him, we understand well the consequences of the disobedience of the King of France for the future of Europe.
Let us recall the message that Our Lord confided to Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque in 1689, with the task of transmitting it to the King of France Louis XIV:
Make it known to the eldest son of my Sacred Heart, that as his temporal birth was obtained thanks to the devotion to the merits of My Holy Infancy, so his birth to grace and eternal glory will be obtained by means of the consecration which he will make of himself to my Adorable Heart, which wishes to triumph over his heart, and by means of this, over the hearts of the great ones of the earth.
The Sacred Heart wants to reign in his palace, to be depicted on his standards and engraved on his arms, so as to make him victorious over all his enemies, laying his proud and haughty foes at his feet, in order to make him triumph over all the enemies of the Church.
The Sacred Heart desires to enter with pomp and magnificence into the palaces of princes and kings, so as to be honored today as much as it was outraged, humiliated, and despised during his Passion. He wishes to see the great ones of the earth lowered and humiliated at his feet, just as he was then annihilated.
But if more than three centuries ago the disobedience of those who governed public affairs merited the severe punishment of the King of kings, let us imagine what calamities the disobedience of those who govern the Church may have provoked. Thus, if with the French Revolution civil society ousted the Universal King from His Divine Lordship in order to usurp it and spread the errors of Liberalism and Socialism, with the conciliar revolution the Popes and Bishops removed the triple crown from the Head of the Mystical Body and His Vicar, making of the Church of Christ a sort of parliamentary republic in the name of collegiality and synodality. Let us take note of it: Our Lord Jesus Christ not only is no longer recognized as Sovereign of nations. He is now no longer even recognized as Sovereign of His Church, in which the goal of the glory of God and the salvation of souls has been replaced by the glory of man and the consequent damnation of souls. What was a vice yesterday is today a virtue; what was a virtue yesterday is today a vice: all the present action of the modernist sect that infests the Vatican, the Dioceses, and the Religious Orders is characterized by the overturning of what has been taught and handed down to us.
In this context of rebellion and infidelity, those who remain faithful and strive to continue doing what they have always done are made the object of a true and proper persecution. It began with the ridicule of the traditionalists, designating them as Lefebvrian or preconciliar. Then, according to the practice that we have seen used in totalitarian regimes, good Catholics have been defined as mad or sick – what sociologists call the pathologization of dissent. Do not think that I am using exaggerated expressions: just a few days ago a priest in Costa Rica was suspended from ministry and forced to undergo psychiatric treatment simply for having celebrated the Mass of Paul VI in Latin despite the prohibition of his Bishop, Msgr. Bartolomé Buigues (here). Today we are witnessing the criminalization of dissenters, and if we do not yet see their physical elimination, we know how many of them are suspended a divinis, deprived of their very means of support and banished from ecclesial life. And this happens while at the same time scandalous persons and fornicators of every sort not only are not punished and expelled from the Ministry but are even promoted and immortalized in photos standing next to Bergoglio, who holds them close because he knows that he can use them in whatever way suits him. Let us understand then why the corruption of Prelates is instrumental to the plan of the conciliar sect: their faults are an excellent means of obtaining their obedience and complicity in carrying out the worst atrocities against the Church and the faithful.
The Coalition For Canceled Priests initiative is certainly a response to what is happening, because this project intends to give assistance to priests who are victims of persecution and of canonical abuses by unfaithful and renegade Bishops. Their authority, usurped to do evil rather than govern the flock entrusted to them with wisdom and charity, vanishes in the very moment in which they use it against the purpose for which it has been established. It is true that they hold power: but this power is a tyrannical abuse about which one cannot and must not remain silent. It is our duty to raise our voices to firmly condemn the illegitimate acts of Shepherds who have shown themselves to be mercenaries, if not ravenous wolves. And it is also our right not only to disobey orders that are illegitimate, invalid, and null, but also to perform acts of conscientious objection and form initiatives aimed at protecting the victims of these wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Permit me also to suggest, alongside this praiseworthy initiative, that an international Foundation be established that can collect offerings and donations from the faithful, diverting them from parishes and Dioceses that connive with the present Bergoglian regime. When the Bishops see that they are taking a hit in their bank accounts, they will probably be persuaded to temper their approach of ostracizing good priests. When the courts – civil or ecclesiastical – side with those who are persecuted, their persecutors will probably be more careful about abusing their power. In the meantime, initiatives like the Coalition For Canceled Priests and other similar projects will afford an opportunity to practice the works of mercy and acquire merit before God. Each of us, according to our means, can make a concrete contribution – not necessarily only a financial one – even by simply allocating their offerings towards those who merit them and not towards those who use them to oppress good clergy.
Let us not forget, however, that in addition to material assistance, we are all called to rediscover the sense of community, which the conciliar Hierarchy loves to talk about without ever putting into practice in a Catholic sense. If we are truly brothers in Christ, then as brothers we ought to help one another also by welcoming our priests, offering them a place to stay, preparing a home altar around which we can gather our friends. We ought to place our abilities at their service – even the most humble, like knowing how to cook, how to build a wall or repair a roof – for those who today are expelled from their rectories and find themselves out on the street. We must think of the young men who have generously responded to a priestly or religious vocation in the heart of the Tradition and who today see their Ordination or religious Profession placed in danger if they do not accept the doctrinal and moral deviations that are now imposed by the conciliar sect. We must make it clear to the few Bishops and Cardinals who remain faithful to the Magisterium that there can be no possibility of dialogue with those who have amply demonstrated that they are aligned with the enemy. And we must pray to the Divine Majesty, through the intercession of the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of the Priesthood, asking that she may deign to accept our sufferings and the sufferings of these good priests for the conversion of the Hierarchy that has been corrupted today from the top down.
To the many, too many, priests, religious, and clerics – among whom may we not forget are also many women religious, nuns and sisters – I address my affectionate remembrance, sharing in their sufferings, exhorting them all to offer themselves as victims in expiation for the sins of the ministers of the Church. Unite yourselves in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to the offering of the divine, pure, holy, and immaculate Victim: may your life be a sacrifice pleasing to God, in a true priestly spirit. And may you all repeat, before the end of your days, the words of the Canticle of Simeon: quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum (Lk 2:30).
I recalled above the cause of the present evils: rebellion against the Universal Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The consecration of each one of us, of families, communities, nations and the Holy Church to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary is able to move the Most Holy Trinity to compassion and put an end to this terrible scourge, or at least shorten it and hasten the triumph of the King of kings over the enemy of the human race. This is my most sincere wish; this is the noble intention that must animate our every action; this is the foundation for the tremendous and inexorable end of Satan’s plans. Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
