Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church after criticizing Pope Francis, is calling for the removal of an X-profile after an old quote of his about former President Donald Trump was published on it.
Viganò is an Italian clergyman who was excommunicated in July for schism following years of disagreement with Pope Francis over the direction of the Catholic Church.
He had previously called for the pope’s arrest and has become a popular figure among some U.S. conservatives due to his support for former President Donald Trump and his opposition to the church’s acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community as Pope Francis seeks to make the church more inclusive.
On Monday, Vigano raised concerns about a profile on X (formerly Twitter) that publishes his quotes after an out-of-context remark he made about Trump was shared there.
“To avoid confusion and inaccurate or out-of-context quotes, I ask that you please suspend publication of posts under my name and delete this profile. Thank you,” he wrote in response to the quote, which comes from a 2020 interview with the website One Peter Five.
“Now that I am relieved of my official duties, the inspiration that Pope Benedict has entrusted to me allows me, with the greatest possible freedom, to address President Trump and highlight his role in the national and international context and how crucial his mission is in this epochal confrontation,” Vigano said at the time.
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Previously, the archbishop served as the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States for five years. In 2011, he was appointed apostolic nuncio and remained in office until his retirement in 2016.
The quote therefore does not refer to his excommunication.
In a separate post on Monday, Viganò wrote that the account was not his and “therefore does not reflect or express my views.”
“Some of my quotes, which are only partially reproduced, may be taken out of context and therefore misleading,” he wrote. The profile remained public at the time of publication.
Newsweek asked Viganò for comment via email.
Viganò was accused of denying the legitimacy of Pope Francis, breaking off communion with him and rejecting the Second Vatican Council. He had previously described the trial as an “extrajudicial process”, but in a letter he considered the accusations against him to be an “honour”.
He wrote that he believed Catholics must ask themselves whether it is “compatible with the profession of the Catholic faith to passively watch the systematic destruction of the Church by its leaders, just as other subversives are destroying civil society.”
In January, Viganò said Pope Francis should be arrested over a controversy surrounding a book on sexuality written by a cardinal in 1998. In 2020, he called for a “mass exorcism” because of the COVID-19 pandemic and opposed the closure of religious services to prevent the spread of the virus.
