Archbishop Viganò: ‘Cardinals’ created by Bergoglio ‘cannot validly elect a pope’ –
(LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is doubling down on his belief that the upcoming conclave is invalid due to irregularities with its members.
“At most, the College will be able to designate its own representative, someone who will renew and continue the usurpation of the recently deceased predecessor, and see the ongoing fraud further ratified by a complicit or cowardly episcopate,” His Excellency told Italian journalist Francesco Borgonovo this week.
Notable quotations from Archbishop Viganò’s latest interview:
“At most, the College will be able to designate its own representative, someone who will renew and continue the usurpation.”
“A moderately conservative ‘pope’ … could be effective to administer a palliative cure… https://t.co/JfWqUpIVgR
— Stephen Kokx (@StephenKokx) April 29, 2025
Following Francis’ death, Archbishop Viganò has spoken out on a number of topics, not only about Francis’ legacy, which he has described as a “usurpation” of the Throne of St. Peter, but also about the upcoming meeting of the cardinals, which is set to kick off on May 7.
In an April 23 letter sent to an Italian television program, His Excellency commented that due to “Bergoglio’s acceptance of the Papacy [being] flawed,” the clergy he has named cardinals are “false.”
“Of the 136 Cardinal electors, 108 were ‘created’ by [Bergoglio]; which means that whatever Pope is elected in the upcoming Conclave – even if he were a new Saint Pius X – his authority will be compromised by having been elected by false cardinals, created by a false Pope,” His Excellency said.
5. What will be the future of the Church now that Pope Francis has died?
The death of Bergoglio crystallizes, so to speak, a situation of widespread illegitimacy. Of the 136 Cardinal electors, 108 were “created” by him; which means that whatever Pope is elected in the upcoming…
— Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò (@CarloMVigano) April 24, 2025
Archbishop Viganò re-iterated that position in his interview with Borgonovo.
“A College of Cardinals composed of 108 ‘cardinals’ created by a Jesuit who usurped the Papacy for twelve years cannot validly elect a legitimate pope,” he stated.
He also said, “the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis that regulates the Conclave, confirmed by the Motu Proprio of Benedict XVI Normas Nonnullas, peremptorily establishes that the number of Cardinal electors must not exceed 120 individuals. But the Cardinal electors who make up the imminent “conclave” are 136: we are therefore faced with a very serious violation that alone would be enough to undermine the legitimacy of any supposedly valid Conclave.”
His Excellency made other striking remarks as well, including pushing back against the election of a “conservative” candidate.
“A moderately conservative ‘pope’ … could be effective to administer a palliative cure to contain the devastating effects of the disease that strikes the Catholic Church, rather than a radical treatment that removes its causes. But such a moderate treatment has already been tried and did not work,” he added.
Archbishop Viganò’s perspective on the conclave has won the support of renowned Catholic philosopher Dr. Josef Seifert.
In an open letter published this week, Dr. Seifert called on Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, to launch an official investigation into the many accusations of heresy against Francis before the start of the next conclave to determine which cardinals should be allowed to participate in it.
“If the accusation of heresy prior to Pope Francis’s election, during and after it, prove to be correct, two thirds of the present college of Cardinals would be excluded from entering the Conclave,” Seifert said.
Seifert’s support for Archbishop Viganò’s position is significant, as he was not only an intimate friend of Pope John Paul II but also a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. He has also held a number of prominent positions at prestigious Catholic institutions during his lengthy career. He was scandalously not re-appointed to his post at the academy by Francis in 2017, having been replaced with pro-abortion, pro-“social justice”, and pro-open borders “theologians.”
Archbishop Viganò amplified Seifer’s letter by sharing it to his X account.
— Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò (@CarloMVigano) April 28, 2025
Archbishop Viganò further told Borgonovo that he has little hope now that “power is now in the hands of two very corrupt figures: the Substitute of the Secretariat of State, Edgard Peña Parra – whose crimes I have extensively denounced – and the Cardinal Camerlengo, Kevin Farrell.”
He then shared a list of accusations about Farrell, who he said “knows all the accomplices of McCarrick’s crimes and will be able to maneuver the upcoming ‘conclave’ by means of blackmail or promises.”
His Excellency also told Borgonovo about who it was that excommunicated him.
“I was convicted and declared guilty of the canonical crime of schism and punished by excommunication for a non-crime by an illegitimate tribunal, on the mandate of an illegitimate ‘pope,’” he said. The excommunication “was imposed on me by a heretic pornographer, Tucho Fernández, appointed by Bergoglio to demolish the former Holy Office.”
Archbishop Viganò also revealed that “on the very day of my seventy-fifth birthday, while still living in Washington as Apostolic Nuncio, Bergoglio ordered my expulsion from my Vatican apartment, which John Paul II had ordered me to have for the rest of my life, and also ordered me to be excluded from the residence for retired nuncios in Rome, the Casa San Benedetto.” He added that, “Bergoglio revoked my Vatican citizenship, my Vatican passport, and my Vatican driver’s license which enabled me to move about independently.”
His Excellency further stated that Francis had a devastating impact on the Church and papacy.
“Bergoglio did not need to change doctrine: he instead managed to make it irrelevant and negligible, creating a certain liquid inclusiveness without dogmas and without ideals … he made sure that after him no Pope could obtain from Catholics that obedience that he made hateful, because it was extorted in order to support heresies and moral deviations.”
To read Archbishop Viganò’s interview in full, visit the Exsurge Domine website here.
Join Bishop Strickland’s novena for a holy pope:
