“The invention of the ‘papacy Emeritus’ further undermined the Petrine Primacy and opened the way to that ‘shared papacy’ — in a surreal division of munus and ministerium without any theological or canonical basis — which is today evolving into a reinterpretation of the role of the Pontiff in an ecumenical key,” His Excellency said.
Continuing, Viganò charged that Benedict XVI’s “redefinition of the Petrine institution and his creation of the ‘papacy emeritus’ constitute the maximum expression of the heretical instances of Ratzingerian theology, and as such must be the object of a very precise condemnation, together with other heresies (well highlighted by the studies of eminent Professor Radaelli) that the German theologian never disavowed.”
Marshall is a popular Texas-based Traditional Catholic author and podcaster. He recently sent a list of questions to Viganò, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. Marshall, who released the interview in two parts on YouTube, asked the archbishop about the Third Secret of Fatima as well as the Vatican Bank, Summorum Pontificum, and a variety of other topics pertaining to the papacy and the duties of Traditional priests.
In his lengthy response, Viganò said, “I consider Jorge Mario Bergoglio an anti-Pope — or better said, a counter-pope, a usurper, an emissary of the anti-Catholic lobby that has infiltrated the Church for decades.”
His Excellency identified the “most dangerous” men in the Vatican today as being Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, doctrinal chief Cardinal Victor Fernández, liberal Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, anti-Latin Mass Cardinal Arthur Roche, and Venezuelan prelate Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra.
While urging priests to only offer the Latin Mass, Viganò, who the Vatican recently said incurred automatic excommunication for rejecting the Second Vatican Council and Francis as the pope, argued that a “holy pope” would nullify Vatican II and “abolish the Novus Ordo and restore the Traditional Liturgy.”
His Excellency further told Marshall that concerns over the authenticity of the Third Secret of Fatima that was revealed by the Vatican in the year 2000 are “well-founded.”
“Beyond the anomalies and technical inconsistencies — such as the format of the paper support used by Sister Lucia — it seems clear to me that the revealed content was censored, so as not to confirm what is there for all to see: the demolition of the Catholic Church from within and the apostasy of the faith through a ‘bad Council’ and a ‘bad Mass’,” he said.
Viganò also commented on groups of Traditional clergy who offer the Latin Mass. In one instance, he accused the Priestly Society of St. Pius X of “showing signs of tiredness.” He said that “sometimes it seems that [the SSPX’s] silence about the horrors of Santa Marta is motivated by a tacit agreement of non-belligerence, perhaps in the hope of [becoming] the collector of conservatism and part of Catholic traditionalism, once Bergoglio has eliminated ‘the competition’ of the former Ecclesia Dei institutions.”
Lastly, His Excellency commented on the subject of sedevacantism.
“Even if it is appropriate to suspend … judgment on the popes of the Council, it is necessary to put everything that they have produced ‘in parenthesis’ so to speak,” he said.
At the same time, Viganò stated that “it
is not possible to believe that the Lord allowed His Church to remain
eclipsed and deprived of the ordinary means of Grace — the Sacraments —
for over sixty years, with Bishops and priests not validly ordained and
therefore with invalid Mass and Sacraments.”