Carlo Maria Viganò (; born 16 January 1941) is an Italian excommunicated archbishop who served as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States from 2011 to 2016 and as secretary-general of the Governorate of Vatican City State from 2009 to 2011. He is known for having publicized the Vatican leaks scandal of 2012, in which he revealed financial corruption in the Vatican, and a 2018 letter accusing Pope Francis and other Catholic leaders of covering up sexual abuse allegations against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick. In 2024, after stating his intention to create a traditionalist seminary outside of the Church's control, Viganò was charged by the Vatican with schism. He was declared guilty and excommunicated.
Viganò was ordained a priest in 1968 and spent most of his career working in a diplomatic capacity for the Holy See. As a priest, he served on a number of diplomatic missions before being consecrated a bishop by Pope John Paul II in 1992. After becoming a bishop, Viganò continued his diplomatic career, spending six years as nuncio in Nigeria before being transferred to Rome. Viganò was appointed secretary general of the Vatican City Governorate 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 was then transferred to the position of apostolic nuncio to the United States in 2011 over his objections. 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. Viganò's term as ambassador ended in 2016.
In August 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 some defending Francis, questioning the statements made in the letter and Viganò's credibility.
After the publication of the letter, Viganò continued to issue controversial public statements and conspiracy theories. He has rejected the Second Vatican Council and the Mass of Paul VI; in December 2023, he announced plans to establish a traditionalist seminary outside of the church's jurisdiction. In 2024, he was charged with schism and, after refusing to appear at a trial, excommunicated.
Early life and career Carlo Maria Viganò was born on 16 January 1941 in Varese, Kingdom of Italy. He was ordained a priest on 24 March 1968 by Bishop Carlo Allorio. He earned a doctorate in utroque iure (both canon and civil law).
His nephew Carlo Maria Polvani is a priest and adjunct under-secretary at the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Diplomatic career On 3 April 1992, Viganò 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 served in this role until he became secretary general of the governatorate on 16 July 2009.
Secretary General of the Vatican City Governorate
In 2009, Viganò was appointed secretary general of the Vatican City Governorate. 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.
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 Governorate 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."
Apostolic Nuncio to the United States Appointment and handling of sexual abuse allegations
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". One of the letters leaked by Benedict's butler in 2012 revealed that Viganò had bypassed Bertone and complained directly to Benedict regarding corruption in the Vatican, for which Bertone arranged to have Viganò transferred to Washington over Viganò's objections. Although Federico Lombardi, the official Vatican spokesperson, had originally said that Benedict held "unquestionable faith and trust" in Viganò, a statement in February 2012 signed by some Vatican leaders said that his allegations were "erroneous," "unfounded," and "based on groundless fears."
It was initially reported that Viganò's brother, Lorenzo Viganò, a Jesuit biblical scholar, had said that his brother lied in telling Benedict he needed to stay in Rome to care for his ailing brother, when apparently Lorenzo was healthy, living in Chicago, and had not spoken to his brother for two years. However, Viganò's siblings disputed those statements. The Vatican published Viganò's Washington appointment on 19 October 2011 and Viganò became the 14th papal representative to the United States since the creation of the post in 1893 and the fifth to serve as a diplomatic representative accredited to the government since bilateral diplomatic relations were established in 1984. Viganò said he welcomed the appointment and said that being Apostolic Nuncio to the United States is an "important, vast and delicate" task; he was grateful to Pope Benedict for entrusting him with the mission and he felt called to renew his "trust in the Lord, who asks me to set out again." Being apostolic nuncio, he said, is "a call to know this people, this country and come to love them."
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, commented that the revelation of Viganò's complaints about corruption and cronyism in Vatican finances "in a way...enhances his credibility as someone who does not look upon the internal workings of the Holy See with rose-colored glasses, but is well aware of difficulties there."
In 2014, Viganò allegedly ordered officials of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to end an investigation into sexual misconduct on the part of Archbishop John Nienstedt, who was found innocent by police authorities. Dan Griffith, who served as the archdiocese's Delegate for Safe Environment between August 2013 and July 2014, wrote an account of a meeting that took place in April 2014. Griffith's memo was leaked to the National Catholic Reporter in July 2016 and alleged that Viganò had ordered the archdiocese's two auxiliary bishops, Lee A. Piché and Andrew H. Cozzens, to cease the investigation and carry out the destruction of evidence. On 11 March 2014, local county officials announced they had concluded an intensive investigation and would not file charges against Nienstedt, who announced his return to public ministry the same day. However, Nienstedt resigned in June 2015 after it was announced that a Minnesota prosecutor was bringing criminal charges and initiating a civil suit against the archdiocese for failing to protect children from sexual abuse. After the Nienstedt case received renewed attention following Viganò's 2018 letter, Viganò denied allegations that he had attempted to suppress the investigation and provided documentation in his defense. Griffith responded to Viganò's statement and defended his memo. Cozzens also responded with a statement stating that at one point he and Griffith believed that Viganò had ordered an end to the investigation, but that Viganò later clarified that the investigation should be completed. Cozzens said that he believed Griffith acted in good faith.
On 5 June 2019, Viganò was reported to have received, together with other influential U.S. Catholic leaders, substantial monetary gifts from West Virginia bishop Michael J. Bransfield, who had resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct. The gifts had been reimbursed by Bransfield's diocese. Viganò said that he had been told by his staff that such gifts were common in the United States, that he had decided to donate the money to charity, and that he did not know that the diocese had reimbursed Bransfield.
Kim Davis meeting On 24 September 2015 during his visit to the United States, Pope Francis met Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On 2 October, Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said that the office of Viganò had extended the invitation to Davis. Chief Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi depicted the meeting as one among many brief introductions rather than an audience.