ROME (AP) — The Vatican on Friday excommunicated its former ambassador to Washington after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable outcome for Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. The conservative had became one of Pope Francis ' most ardent critics and a symbol of the polarized Catholic Church in the United States and beyond.
While once enjoying support in the Vatican and U.S. church hierarchies, the Italian archbishop alienated many as he developed a fringe following while delving deeper into conspiracy theories on everything — from the coronavirus pandemic to what he called the “Great Reset” and Russia's war in Ukraine.
The Vatican's doctrine office announced the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday and informed Vigano of its decision on Friday.
It cited Vigano's public “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.”
The excommunication, which Vigano incurred automatically with his positions, means he is formally outside communion with the church, and cannot celebrate or receive its sacraments. The crime of schism occurs when someone withdraws submission to the pope or from the communion of Catholics who are subject to him.
Unlike defrocking, a punitive measure that makes a priest a layman again, excommunication is considered a “medicinal” penalty and is declared in hope those who incurred it would repent and come back into communion. If that happens, the Holy See can lift the penalty.
Schisms, which have been regular in the church's 2,000-year history, are considered particularly dangerous as they threaten the unity of the church.
Vigano’s dire pronunciations about the current state of the church, amplified on Catholic social media and by ideologically friendly bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic, were an exaggerated version of the chasm between U.S. ultra-conservatives and Francis. And while Vigano enjoyed mainstream support among bishops early in his career, many quietly distanced themselves as his ideas became more extreme.
The Italian prelate, who has not been seen publicly since before 2018, knew the schism declaration was coming after the Vatican informed him of the penal process launched against him last month. He defiantly called it “an honor,” and refused to appear in person or defend himself or submit a written defense.
On June 20, Vigano issued a lengthy public statement refusing to recognize the authority of the Vatican's doctrinal office “that claims to judge me, nor of its prefect, nor of the one who appointed him.”
He did not directly respond to the schism declaration on Friday on X, his usual forum. Shortly before the Vatican decree was made public, he announced he would be celebrating a Mass on Friday for those who have been supporting him and asked for donations.
Vigano burst onto the public scene in 2012, during the first so-called Vatileaks scandal, when Pope Benedict XVI’s butler leaked the pontiff’s private papers to an Italian journalist to try to draw attention to corruption in the Holy See.
In some of the leaked letters, Vigano, then the No. 2 in the Vatican City State administration, begged the pope not to be transferred after exposing corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts that cost the Holy See millions of euros (dollars).
The entreaties did not work. By the time the letters were published, Vigano was appointed the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. — a prestigious post but one that took him far from Rome and out of the running to one day be a cardinal.
Vigano reappeared on the scene during Francis’ 2015 visit to the U.S., which as nuncio he helped organize. Everything was going fine until Vigano arranged for Kim Davis, a Kentucky clerk at the center of the U.S. gay marriage debate, to be present at the Vatican residence to greet Francis, along with many other people.
After the visit, Davis and her lawyers claimed the encounter with Francis amounted to an affirmation of her cause denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The Vatican later turned the tables on Davis' claim, saying she had merely been among a group of well-wishers but that the “only” private audience Francis had in Washington was with a small group of people that included a gay couple.
But Vigano’s deception in inviting Davis to meet the pope put the prelate and the pontiff on a collision course that exploded in August 2018.
At the time, the U.S. church was reeling from a new chapter in its clergy sex abuse scandal: One of the most senior U.S. churchmen, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, was accused of molesting a minor and a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a devastating investigation into decades of abuse and cover-up.
As Francis was wrapping up a tense visit to Ireland, Vigano published an 11-page screed accusing him and a long string of U.S. and Vatican officials of covering for McCarrick. Specifically, Vigano accused Francis of rehabilitating McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict, and called on him to resign — accusations that created the greatest crisis of Francis’ then-young pontificate.
Francis quickly authorized an in-house investigation into McCarrick. The report, released in 2020, confirmed that a generation of church officials, including Pope John Paul II, had turned a blind eye to McCarrick’s misconduct. It largely spared Francis, who eventually defrocked the churchman.
But the report also faulted Vigano for not looking into new claims against McCarrick or enforcing Vatican restrictions on him when specifically ordered to do so by the Vatican.
At that point, Vigano’s claims against Francis became more unhinged, endorsing conspiracy theories about the coronavirus vaccines, appearing at far-right U.S. political rallies via video, backing Russia in its war on Ukraine, and eventually, refusing to recognize Francis as pope.
Massimo Faggioli, a theologian at Villanova University, said while a good number of U.S. bishops vouched for Vigano's integrity when he first made his claims about McCarrick in 2018, his declarations in the ensuing years “led some of them to more prudent positions.”
In an essay in the French daily La Croix, Faggioli also noted that Vigano had had a seeming unintended effect of mainstreaming another schismatic group, the Society of St. Pius X, which also rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church.
However, the society known as SSPX founded by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1969, distanced itself from Vigano and his rejection of the legitimacy of Francis' pontificate, saying they “have not ventured down that perilous road.”
Vigano's positions make Lefebvre and the SSPX "look like right-of-center Catholics, and not like the extreme traditionalists they actually are," Faggioli wrote. "This says something about the ground shifting under the feet of Vatican II Catholics.”
FILE - Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., listens to remarks at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual fall meeting in Baltimore, Nov. 16, 2015. The Vatican has excommunicated its former ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable end for the firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis' most ardent critics. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
MATAGORDA, Texas (AP) — Hurricane Beryl swept into Texas early Monday with heavy rains and powerful winds, knocking out power to 1.5 million homes and businesses and flooding streets with fast-rising waters as first responders raced to rescue stranded residents.
Beryl had already cut a deadly path through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean before turning toward Texas. The Category 1 hurricane hit land just before 4 a.m., then weakened to a tropical storm about five hours later. At least two people were killed. The National Hurricane Center said damaging winds and flash flooding will continue as Beryl continues pushing inland.
High waters quickly began to close streets in storm-weary Houston, which was again under flood warnings after heavy storms in recent months washed out neighborhoods.
CenterPoint Energy in Houston reported 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power. Flood warnings were in effect across a wide stretch of the Texas coast, where a powerful storm surge pushed water ashore, and further inland as heavy rain continued to fall.
“We haven’t really slept,” said Eva Costancio, 67, as she gazed at a large tree that had fallen across power lines in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg. Her neighborhood lost power about four hours earlier and she worried that food in her refrigerator would be spoiled.
"We are struggling to have food and losing that food would be difficult,” she said.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is out of the country, said crews cannot get out to fix power lines until the wind dies down. He also warned that flooding could last for days and the storm continues to dump rain onto already saturated ground.
“This is not a one-day event,” Patrick said.
Rosenberg police noted that one of its high-water vehicles was hit by a falling tree while returning from a rescue, and they urged people to stay off the roads. Video footage showed heavy street flooding in the barrier island city of Galveston, and Houston was under a flash-flood warning for most of the morning as heavy rain continued to soak the city.
Two people were killed after trees fell on their houses: a man in the Houston suburb of Humble and a woman in Harris County, authorities said.
Texas officials warned people along the entire coastline to prepare for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind. Several coastal counties called for voluntary evacuations in low-lying areas. Local officials also banned beach camping and urged tourists traveling on the Fourth of July holiday weekend to move recreational vehicles from coastal parks.
Tornadoes and flash flooding were also possible in eastern Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, the hurricane center said.
In the Texas coastal city of Freeport, Patti Richardson said she was riding out the the storm in her 123-year-old house.
“We are sitting in the middle of it. It sounds like we are in a train station, it’s that loud and has been about four hours. We’re just hoping everything holds together,” Richardson said. “You can feel the house shaking. ... It’s freaky.”
More than 1,000 flights have been canceled at Houston’s two airports, according to tracking data from FlightAware.
The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean on its way to Texas. The storm ripped off doors, windows and roofs with devastating winds and storm surge fueled by the Atlantic’s record warmth.
Three times during its one week of life, Beryl has gained 35 mph (56 kph) in wind speed in 24 hours or less, the official weather service definition of rapid intensification.
Beryl’s explosive growth into an unprecedented early whopper of a storm indicates the hot water of the Atlantic and Caribbean and what the Atlantic hurricane belt can expect for the rest of the storm season, experts said.
In Louisiana, heavy bands of rain are expected all day Monday and “the risk is going to be for that heavy rainfall and potential for flash flooding,” National Weather Service meteorologist Donald Jones said in a Monday morning Facebook Live briefing.
Meteorologists in Louisiana are watching for lingering rainbands, which could drop copious amounts of rain wherever they materialize, as well as “quick, spin-up tornadoes,” said Donald Jones, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
“It’s just a matter of exactly where that’s going to be,” Jones said. “That’s very difficult to predict more than maybe an hour or so in advance.”
In Port Lavaca on the Texas coast, Jimmy May fastened plywood over the windows of his electrical supply company before the storm hit but said he wasn’t concerned about the possible storm surge. He recalled his business had escaped flooding in a previous hurricane that brought a 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge.
“In town, you know, if you’re in the low-lying areas, obviously, you need to get out of there,” he said.
Beryl battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane last week, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula.
Before hitting Mexico, Beryl wrought destruction in Jamaica, Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Three people were reported dead in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica.
Valerie Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas. Associated Press reporters Corey Williams in Detroit, Valerie Gonzales in McAllen, Texas, Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Julie Walker in New York contributed.
An oil tanker heads out to open water as surfers take advantage of waves ahead of Hurricane Beryl's arrival in Port Aransas, Texas, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sherry Cothron and Jimmy May board windows as they prepare for Hurricane Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A hotel guest navigates the halls after power was lost due to Hurricane Beryl, Monday, July 8, 2024, in Bay City, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Ed Campbell works to secure his boat as he prepares for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. Although Beryl remained a tropical storm Sunday as it churned toward Texas, it threatened to potentially regain hurricane strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Leo Cardin walks past a Confederate Artillery Battery display as he watches storm clouds roll in ahead of Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Jimmy May boards windows as he prepares for Hurricane Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Jimmy May boards windows as he prepares for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. Beryl is hurtling across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico on a collision course with Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Jimmy May boards windows as he prepares for Hurricane Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers with the Galveston Island Park Board of Trustees remove lifeguard towers from the beach near 57th Street in Galveston, Texas on Sunday, July 7, 2024, as Tropical Storm Beryl churns toward the Texas Coast. The storm is expected to make landfall near Matagorda Bay early Monday morning. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP)
A message for Beryl is left on a boarded up business, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Rock Port, Texas, as the storm moves closer to the Texas coast. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
People watch waves crash into the 37th Street rock groin in Galveston, Texas on Sunday, July 7, 2024, as Tropical Storm Beryl churns toward the Texas Coast. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP)
Doan Vu, right, and Luan Nguyen, left, board up windows as they prepare for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Palaciios, Texas. Texas officials are telling coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl was forecast to regain hurricane strength before making landfall early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Luan Nguyen boards up windows as he helps prepare for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Palaciios, Texas. Texas officials are telling coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl was forecast to regain hurricane strength before making landfall. Landfall was expected early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Doan Vu, left, and Luan Nguyen, right, board up windows as they prepare for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Palaciios, Texas. Texas officials are telling coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl was forecast to regain hurricane strength before making landfall early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Clyde George, left, and his son Chris George board up their home ahead of the arrival of Tropical Storm Beryl on Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port O'Connor, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
A man walks his dog near a Confederate Artillery Battery display as he watches storm clouds roll in ahead of Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Leo Cardin walks past a Confederate Artillery Battery display as he watches storm clouds roll in ahead of Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Richard Alcazar stacks sandbags in front of the door at Atmosphere The Salon & Beyond in Galveston, Texas, Sunday, July 7, 2024, as Tropical Storm Beryl heads toward the Texas coast. Alcazar, a barber at the salon, prepared the doors for any possible flooding from the storm. ( Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP)
Blake Braun loads his dog Dolly into his family's vehicle as outer bands from Tropical Storm Beryl begin to hit the coast Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port O'Connor, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
