Editor’s note: The following is a statement from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, addressing the potential laicization by the Vatican of African priest Fr. Janvier Gbénou (Father Jesusmary Missigbètò) for his criticism of Pope Francis.
(LifeSiteNews) — The open letter of Father Janvier Gbénou – disgracefully kicked out of Opus Dei and dismissed from the clerical state because of his fidelity to the Catholic Magisterium and his open opposition to the apostasy of the Bergoglian sect – may at first glance appear naïve and useless. I myself, in reading the – albeit partial – list of Bergoglio’s deviations and heresies, have wondered what good it can do to turn to the cardinals and bishops of the world – to whom I myself have repeatedly appealed – to ask for a public correction of a manifest apostate.
With a supernatural glance, we understand how true and relevant are the words of Our Lord, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40).
Silent are the cardinals, silent are the bishops, silent are the clergy and the people. Silent are the accomplices of apostasy and fornication, but also silent are those who find themselves under blackmail or threat because they owe their legitimacy to the arbitrariness of a usurper whom they also recognize as pope. Silent are those who denounce the effects of the crisis but do not want to acknowledge its causes, which they guiltily share, beginning with Vatican II and its heretical liturgy. Silent also are those who, for defending Catholic Truth, have been ostracized by the Church for fifty years but hope to benefit from the exodus of the faithful after the promulgation of Traditionis custodes.
Even that cardinal, who came down from Val Camonica, who made the 2013 Conclave invalid, is silent. Silent, too, is that other cardinal (saved from death by the courageous intervention of a Veronica) despite having confided to friends the invalidity of the Conclave.
Finally, the faithful are silent, and not out of cowardice, but because they are scandalized and now disillusioned by a hierarchy totally enslaved to the enemy.
Father Jesusmary’s cry rips through the silence with the simplicity of a child’s words, with the clarity of the voice of a true disciple of Christ. And this cry echoes in the bleak void of a battered Church, among the vaults of a deserted temple desecrated by its own ministers.
It is up to the few who have remained faithful to shake themselves out of their torpor, seeing in that desperate and long-suffering cry a call to restore to the Bride of the Lamb the dignity that has been wrested from her by unworthy and mercenary shepherds. For this “vox clamantis in deserto” could be a last call by which Providence summons His own; by which He prepares the painful and severe purification of the wicked; by which He marks a point of no return before the coming of Christ, like a thief in the night (1 Thess 5:2).
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Fr. Jesusmary Missigbètò, who has penned a number of open letters published on LifeSiteNews, is urging Catholics to come to his defense by letting the Vatican know he should not be punished for defending the faith.
“Dear faithful Catholics, on 19 February 2024, the Vatican and Opus Dei have opened a canonical process that will lead to my dismissal from the clerical state,” Missigbètò wrote on X Wednesday.
“PLEASE WRITE AND CALL to demand that the process be cancelled and Pope Francis be invited to correct his errors,” he added.
The following is the contact information provided by Fr. Jesusmary Missigbètò where people can respectfully submit their defense of the priest:
PREFECT OF THE DICASTERY FOR THE CLERGY
Lazarus You Heung-Sik
+39 06 69 88 41 51
PRELATE OF OPUS DEI
Fernando Ocáriz
+39 06 80 89 61
VICAR OF OPUS DEI IN IVORY COAST
Serge Abdoulaye Sissoko
+225 27 22 41 65 15