8 July—Last week Pope Francis and his pals in the Vatican fired Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador to the United States, a post from which Vigano had also been fired. So princes of the church can be fired, you’re thinking. Absolutely. Because religion is essentially politics and business with gods thrown in to keep the patrons under control and motivate them to pay for the privilege.

(You must be wondering what the hell the United States is doing recognizing an ambassador of a religion, an apostolic nuncio. Good question. So you should also be wondering what the hell the United States is doing sending an ambassador to a religion, an ambassador to the Holy See. Thank President Ronald Reagan and his good buddy Pope John Paul II—J2P2 to familiars. And grin and bear it. Because the Constitution means only what people in power want it to mean.)

Technically, Vigano hasn’t been canned, only excommunicated. He’s still Archbishop Vigano until he’s defrocked. But having been excommunicated he can’t celebrate or receive sacraments. So he’s effectively been knackered. A knowledgeable source in Rome reckons that Vigano hasn’t been defrocked in the hope that he may repent.

He should know better. Because ultra-conservative Vigano has been ultra-critical of ultra-liberal Francis from the get-go. In fact, the archbishop has refused to recognize the authority of Pope Francis, called on him to resign, and even called the nice old pope a “servant of Satan.” Jesus Christ, you’re thinking, that’s a Roman Catholic archbishop? Not for long.

Vigano once had been a severe critic of the church in dealing with clerical abuse, among other things. But he descended into the depths of delusion and Marjorie Taylor Greene idolatry. For instance, he retweeted a post from that despicable harridan claiming that covid vaccines were killing people. (Not that it didn’t happen every now and then, as with all vaccines, to be sure.)

On 20 June, the dreaded Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith tried Archbishop Vigano in a so-called penal canon trial for the “crime of schism” (properly pronounced sizm) and “denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis.” In the good old days that would have been heresy and the heretic would have been burned at the stake. (How would you like to be tried by a dicastery? For anything. Actually, a dicastery is just a court of justice—from Ancient Greece.)

Vigano didn’t bother to show up for his trial because he didn’t recognize the authority of the pope or the officials. And of course he knew what the verdict would be. Naturally he was found guilty of the “reserved delict of schism.” (A delict is an offense—from the Latin.)

Just last Friday, Vigano posted on X (because X doesn’t allow tweets) that he’d say Mass for supporters in defiance of the Vatican ruling. No surprise there. While he can in fact say Mass that’s considered valid, it’s also considered illicit. As if he’d care anyway. And would God care?

Of course, in his X post the currently frocked archbishop also asked for donations to his Exsurge Domine foundation. No surprise there either. But it’s not a super-PAC to funnel money to anything stateside, as far as we can tell. Rather, it’s supposed to offer “traditional training” to seminarians. “Exsurge Domine” means “Arise, Lord.” It’s taken from a papal bull of 15 June 1520 by Pope Leo X in response to apostate Martin Luther. The archbishop knows his history, including that Magna Carta preceded Exsurge Domine by 305 years to the day.

So that’s what makes religion worth writing about, if not practicing. And Archbishop Vigano tweets. Sorry, he posts. He’s 83 and should know better. But he probably posts on other social media too, just like the 87-year-old pope . . .