On September 27, 2018, Archbishop Viganò issued the second in his series of three testimonies (thus far) that featured a “special appeal” to Cardinal Marc Ouellet; calling on the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops to “bear witness to the truth” by releasing “key documents incriminating McCarrick and many in the curia for their cover-ups.”
On October 7, Cardinal Ouellet responded with an open letter of his own; disparaging Viganò while also (perhaps inadvertently) confirming that documents do in fact exist relative to the restrictions that were placed against McCarrick.
Six days later, on October 13, well-known Italian Vaticanist Aldo Maria Valli published an explosive interview with Monsignor Nicola Bux; one in which he not only calls into question Jorge Bergoglio’s claim to the Chair of St. Peter in light of his heresies, but also “concerning the juridical validity of Pope Benedict XVI’s renunciation.”
Was the timing of Bux’s anti-Bergoglian commentary coincidental, or does it signal a coordinated effort between him and Viganò to bring down Francis’ “so-called pontificate” (to quote Fr. Nicholas Gruner yet again)?
While we cannot know for certain, I am inclined to believe that it is the latter.
Readers may recall that Aldo Maria Valli was the journalist hand-picked by Archbishop Viganò to help him plan and publish his testimony, the conclusion to which calls on Francis to “set a good example to cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them.”
NB: Even though Viganò has identified his desire to see “the homosexual networks present in the Church eradicated” as a goal, his more immediate aim in making his concerns public is to see the Church rid of Francis; a man whose behavior he labeled both “disconcerting and sinful.” He writes:
Francis is abdicating the mandate which Christ gave to Peter to confirm the brethren. Indeed, by his action he has divided them, led them into error, and encouraged the wolves to continue to tear apart the sheep of Christ’s flock.
In other words, Bergoglio, according to Viganò, is unfit to occupy the Petrine Office, not only by virtue of his handling of the McCarrick affair, but also because he is leading the faithful into error. And so, for the good of the Church, the archbishop calls on him to depart.
Though Msgr. Bux is more circumspect, it is fair to say that he and Archbishop Viganò are brothers-in-arms in this effort to rid the Church of the Bergoglian menace; the latter defending the Church from a largely moral position, the former on doctrinal and juridical grounds; with both men using the journalistic influence of Aldo Maria Valli as a means of launching their counterattack.
Bux states:
The authentic unity of the Church is made in truth. The Church was placed by the Founder – He who said: “I am the truth” – as “the pillar and foundation of truth” ( 1 Tim 3:15). Without the truth there is no unity, and charity would be a fiction … The pope is called by the Lord to spread the Catholic faith, but to do so he must prove capable of defending it … If the pope does not behave like a pope and head of the Church, neither is the Church in him nor is he in the Church.
The words are different, but the message is the same: Bergoglio is unfit to occupy the Petrine Office.
Interestingly, Valli makes no mention of Archbishop Viganò in his interview of Bux. This strikes me as an odd omission. One wonders, was this deliberate so as not to let on that a coordinated effort between the two men is underway?
On October 22, Rosa Benigno of the Italian daily, Roma, also interviewed Bux. She, however, made no such attempt to separate their causes. Rather, Benigno invited Bux to comment on “accusations of pedophilia” against high ranking churchmen, asking:
But is the problem pedophilia or homosexuality? And how should the faithful behave in the face of grave accusations coming from within the Church, as in the case of the former Apostolic Nuncio in the USA, Bishop Carlo Maria Viganò?
Bux replied:
We say that pedophilia is still a fig leaf to cover the homosexual question, it is evident that when ecclesiastics dare to go against this hypocrisy and speak clearly – as Monsignor Maria Viganò recently did – they say things by name. If we want the Church to be credible we must always use the right words, and not change their meaning.
In his initial testimony, Archbishop Viganò writes:
To restore the beauty of holiness to the face of the Bride of Christ, which is terribly disfigured by so many abominable crimes, and if we truly want to free the Church from the fetid swamp into which she has fallen, we must have the courage to tear down the culture of secrecy and publicly confess the truths we have kept hidden.
Again, different words; same message.
In conclusion: It seems apparent that Viganò and Bux are working in concert, and it is reasonable to believe that other influential men who have yet to make their position public are among them.
Who are they?
One may do well to keep an eye on the blog of Aldo Maria Valli in order to find out.
