Carlo Maria Viganò

Carlo Maria Viganò (born 16 January 1941) is a bishop of the Catholic Church who served as the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States 2011 to 2016.

Carlo Maria Viganò was born 16 January 1941 in Varese, Italy.

Viganò was ordained a priest in 1968 and spent most of his career working in a diplomatic capacity for the Holy See.

He was ordained a priest on 24 March 1968.

He earned a doctorate in utroque iure (both canon and civil law).

As a priest, he served on a number of diplomatic missions before being consecrated a bishop by Pope John Paul II in 1992.

On 3 April 1992, he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana and Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Nigeria by Pope John Paul II.

At the close of his mission to Nigeria in 1998, he was assigned to functions within the Secretariat of State as delegate for Pontifical Representations, making him the personnel chief for the Roman curia in addition to Vatican diplomats.

He previously served as secretary-general of the Governorate of Vatican City State from 2009 to 2011.

He is best known for having publicized two major Vatican scandals.

Viganò was appointed secretary general of the Vatican City Governatorate in 2009, where he reformed the finances of Vatican City and turned a budget deficit into a surplus.

He complained directly to Pope Benedict XVI about financial corruption.

The unauthorized publication of two of his letters led to the Vatican leaks scandal, exposing financial mismanagement and wrongdoing in the Vatican.

He served in this role until he became secretary general of the governatorate on 16 July 2009.

In 2009, Viganò was appointed secretary general of the Vatican City governatorate.

In that role he established centralized accounting procedures and accountability for cost overruns that reportedly helped turn a US$10.5 million deficit for the city-state into a surplus of $44 million in one year.

In 2010, Viganò suggested that the Vatican should drop out of the Euro currency agreement in order to avoid new European banking regulations.

Instead, the Vatican chose to adhere to the Euro agreement and accept the new scrutiny that tougher banking regulations required.

He was then transferred to the position of apostolic nuncio to the United States in 2011 over his objections.

On 13 August 2011, Bertone informed Viganò that Pope Benedict was appointing him nuncio to the United States.

Reuters reported that Viganò was unwilling to take that assignment.

Viganò stated that this decision was not what Pope Benedict XVI originally had manifested to him.

He wrote to Benedict that his appointment would create "disarray and discouragement" among those who worked against "numerous situations of corruption and waste".

These were the Vatican leaks scandal of 2012, in which he revealed financial corruption in the Vatican, and a 2018 letter in which he accused Pope Francis and other Catholic Church leaders of covering up sexual abuse allegations against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

In late January 2012 a television program aired in Italy under the name of Gli intoccabili (The Untouchables), purporting to disclose confidential letters and memos of the Vatican.

Among the documents were letters written to the pope and to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, by Viganò, complaining of corruption in Vatican finances and a campaign of defamation against him.

Viganò, formerly the second ranked Vatican administrator to the Pope, requested not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions in higher contract prices.

On 4 February 2012, Giovanni Lajolo, Giuseppe Bertello, Giuseppe Sciacca, and Giorgio Corbellini issued a joint statement on behalf of the governatorate of the Vatican: "The unauthorized publication of two letters of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the first addressed to the Holy Father on March 27, 2011, the second to the Cardinal Secretary of State on May 8, for the Governorate of Vatican City is a source of great bitterness. The allegations contained in them can not but lead to the impression that the Governorate of Vatican City, instead of being an instrument of responsible government, is an unreliable entity, at the mercy of dark forces. After careful examination of the contents of the two letters, the President of the Governorate sees it as its duty to publicly declare that those assertions are the result of erroneous assessments, or fears based on unsubstantiated evidence, even openly contradicted by the main characters invoked as witnesses."

Velasio de Paolis, former head of the Vatican's Prefecture of the Economic Affairs, its auditing office, said, "From what I know, I don't think there was actual corruption."

But he did concede the possibility of "instances of a lack of correctness".

Journalist John L. Allen Jr. suggests that Viganò's transfer could have been about a clash of personalities rather than policy.

"[T]his would not seem to be about a courageous whistle-blower who's trying to expose wrongdoing or prompt reform. The motives seem more personal and political."

While in the United States, Viganò earned a reputation as a conservative, arranging a controversial meeting between Pope Francis and former county clerk Kim Davis, known for her opposition to same-sex marriage, during the Pope's 2015 visit to the United States.

A priest accused him of suppressing allegations of sexual misconduct against Archbishop John Clayton Nienstedt, but he denied doing so.

On August 25, 2018, Viganò published an 11-page letter accusing Pope Francis and numerous other senior church leaders of concealing allegations of sexual misconduct against McCarrick.

Viganò stated that Pope Benedict XVI imposed sanctions on McCarrick in response to accusations that were made against him, but that Pope Francis refused to enforce them and that he made McCarrick an important advisor.

Viganò called on Francis to resign.

The letter provoked diverse reactions within the church, with some expressing support for the allegations and calling for further investigation and others defending Francis, questioning the statements made in the letter, and attacking Viganò's credibility.

After the publication of this letter, Viganò continued to issue public statements which aligned him with political positions of the far right and conspiracy theories.

He has also grown close to traditionalist Catholicism, rejecting the Second Vatican Council and the Mass of Paul VI, also establishing a traditionalist seminary outside of the Church jurisdiction.