"By dint of provocation, he hopes that some bishops will tire of seeing doctrine and morals attacked on a daily basis. He hopes that a group of cardinals will formally accuse him of heresy and call for his removal. With this, Bergoglio would have a pretext to accuse those prelates of being enemies of the Pope, of having left the Church, of desiring a schism. It is clear that whoever separates from the Church is not the one who wants to be faithful to the Magisterium; it would be absurd."
Commentary:
This fear of Vigano's confuses me:
He seems to fear exactly what I am praying for: A movement of cardinals and bishops declaring the pope's heresy and deposition.
His words would seem to have a chilling effect on such hopes.
Why would he want to do that???
A more suspicious man might think he tipped his cards here a bit too much, revealing himself as false opposition.
I certainly am not making that accusation, but the thought does linger a bit.
"Don't depose the pope; he'll declare you schismatics" doesn't have much in it to fear.
Yet he seems to want to stop that from happening (which is the same thing as saying he wants Francis to remain in power?).
Read yet another way, he could simply be revealing Bergoglio's strategy, but then saying how asinine it is ("It is clear that whoever separates from the Church is not the one who wants to be faithful to the Magisterium; it would be absurd.").
I really can't tell which is the case: My first interpretation, or this one.
But the thought lingers that in a couple recent letters, he seems to be encouraging the cardinals/bishops to desist from deposing the pope by suggesting that is what Bergoglio wants.
To me, that makes no sense:
If a group of cardinals/bishops declares his heresy, how does that REALLY help Francis?
++Vigano packages it as a way for Francis to rid himself of his enemies and steamroll through the rest of the hierarchy.
Yet any sizable group of cardinals/bishops who no longer regarded him as pope would cast doubt upon everything Francis did subsequently, so again, without coming to any conclusions, I am confused by this perspective of ++Vigano.