To mark the Feast of the Assumption, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò shared a meditation on X calling on the Mother of God to destroy the enemies of the Catholic Church.
“Just as You crushed the head of the ancient serpent from the beginning, so may You crush the apostasy that today threatens the flock of Your Son,” His Excellency said in remarks that seemed to be given during a sermon this past weekend.
Viganò, who resides at a monastery in central Italy with the Familia Christi organization, also emphasized that the body is not a disposable appendage of the person but a redeemed possession of Christ. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven, he said, is the “firstfruits” and pledge of the resurrection promised to the faithful:
Today’s feast reminds us that man’s body is not an accident from which the soul would long to free itself, but a constitutive part of that person whom Our Lord came to redeem wholly, through His own Incarnation. Mary, assumed into heaven, body and soul, is the firstfruits and the guarantee of our own resurrection: a pledge that no modern philosophy, no evanescent theology, no note from disreputable purple-clad prelates will ever be able to erase from the Creed that we profess.
Viganò’s reference to “disreputable purple-clad prelates” is an unmistakable jab at the current ecclesial hierarchy, whom he regards as contributing to doctrinal and liturgical confusion and heresy.
The restoration of the Church
The Dispatch
His Excellency’s focus turned combative as he invoked Mary as Queen and Ark of the New Covenant, asking her to obtain the restoration of the Church to the “fullness of the Faith and worship” handed down by the Fathers.
“May You, Ark of the New Covenant assumed into the sanctuary of Heaven, obtain for this poor pilgrim Church the grace to return” to Tradition, he said.
Throughout his post, the former Nuncio to the United States powerfully employed traditional Catholic imagery: Mary crushing the head of the serpent, the Church as a pilgrim suffering in this world, and the Blessed Virgin as the heavenly Ark.
Viganò’s complete text, which was published in Italian initially on X but translated into English via the platform’s built-in software, is as follows:
In an era that has lost the sense of the body — that idolizes it and at the same time profanes it, that manipulates it and dissolves it into ideologies foreign to the Creator’s design — today’s feast reminds us that man’s body is not an accident from which the soul would long to free itself, but a constitutive part of that person whom Our Lord came to redeem wholly, through His own Incarnation. Mary, assumed into heaven, body and soul, is the firstfruits and the guarantee of our own resurrection: a pledge that no modern philosophy, no evanescent theology, no note from disreputable purple-clad prelates will ever be able to erase from the Creed that we profess.
To You, therefore, Queen assumed into heaven, we entrust today the Church that suffers so greatly; to You we ask that, just as You crushed the head of the ancient serpent from the beginning, so may You crush the apostasy that today threatens the flock of Your Son. May You, Ark of the New Covenant assumed into the sanctuary of Heaven, obtain for this poor pilgrim Church the grace to return, without further hesitation, to the fullness of the Faith and worship that the Fathers have handed down to us.
Archbishop Viganò was “excommunicated” by the Vatican on July 5, 2024 after he was found guilty of the canonical crime of schism. He often invoked the name of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in his statements issued at the time. This came after he publicly and explicitly rejected the legitimacy of Francis Bergoglio and refused submission to his authority, while repudiating the Second Vatican Council.
