During the interview with LifeSiteNews journalist Maike Hickson, Bishop Eleganti discussed a wide range of topics, including the COVID crisis, the war in Ukraine, the Traditional Latin Mass, and the excommunication of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.
The former auxiliary bishop of Chur in Switzerland said that he thought something was wrong with the “COVID pandemic” from the beginning. He felt “that there must be a master plan behind” it to establish “a system of controlling [the people].”
He said the COVID shots were “experimental” and that people were exposed “to a great experiment, [a] human experiment.”
He stressed that the COVID injections “didn’t help, but they [did] great damage to many millions of persons.”
The bishop was also highly critical of the behavior of many in the Church hierarchy during the COVID crisis, as they acted “as if the Church would lose its supernatural faith.”
“How can you treat the Holy Eucharist as a […] contaminated thing?” he questioned. Bishop Eleganti also criticized the removal of holy water from churches, as the sacramental is meant to protect the faithful from evil.
‘Hidden agenda’ behind war in Europe
When discussing the ongoing war in Ukraine, the prelate said it is essential to see the war from both parties’ perspectives and not simply divide it into the “good” and the “bad” sides.
“There is a history and aggressive politics from the United States and NATO, which provoked this war.”
“And they wanted it from the beginning,” he said.
“I have never seen such a promotion of war by politics in Europe,” Bishop Eleganti stated. “It’s really crazy.”
“And there are powerful people with [a lot of] money who have their own hidden agenda.”
The bishop stressed that people should turn towards God and “pray that the Lord does not allow this catastrophe” of the war to escalate further.
The Traditional Latin Mass should be allowed
Hickson asked Bishop Eleganti if the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) should have a place in the Church, to which the Swiss bishop replied: “Yes, it should have a place in the Church.”
“We have 24 rites” in the Church, the bishop said, naming the Ambrosian rite, which is similar to the TLM, as an example.
“One could handle that without too much ideology,” he stressed, adding the TLM is “a beautiful rite, deep, with prayer and reverence to the holy, sacred reality.”
He said the liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council made “a great mistake” by turning the liturgy into “a workshop.”
Bishop Eleganti told LifeSiteNews that he believes Pope Benedict XVI had a better answer to this question than Pope Francis by granting a general allowance to celebrate the TLM.
When asked whether it is legitimate to criticize certain passages of the Vatican II documents, the bishop said, “As a young man, I realized that some passages in the text are not clear enough, so they are open to interpretations, and there was a revolutionary impact on many liberals” who interpreted the texts in a heterodox manner.
Archbishop Viganò’s criticism should be taken seriously
Addressing the question of the recent late sententiae excommunication of Archbishop Viganò announced by the Vatican, Bishop Eleganti said that he thinks the situation is tragic. However, he said he thinks that if someone does not recognize the Roman Pontiff, “it’s very difficult” for the Vatican “not to act.”
Bishop Eleganti said he would not have excommunicated Archbishop Viganò if he were in Pope Francis’s situation “because, in his faith and his sacramental piety, he [Viganò] is not heretical.”
While he believes that the archbishop might have gone “too far” by not recognizing Francis as pope, “one should take it very seriously, what [Viganò] reproaches and what he criticizes.”