CNA Staff, May 8, 2020 / 09:25 am
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has accused a Vatican cardinal of causing him "serious harm" in a bitter war of words over a controversial open letter regarding the coronavirus crisis.
In a statement published May 8, the archbishop criticized Cardinal Robert Sarah's decision to distance himself from the letter, titled "Appeal for the Church and the World," which argues that the coronavirus pandemic has been exploited in order to create a one-world government.
The statement details Vigano's account of his interactions with Sarah beginning May 4. Viganò claims that on the evening of May 7, the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments asked him to remove him from the list of signatories to the letter, which had by that time already been published.
"With surprise and deep regret," he wrote, "I then learned that His Eminence had used his Twitter account, without giving me any notice, to make statements that cause serious harm to the truth and to my person."