Archbishop Viganò denounces ‘complicity’ of globalist ‘elite’ in French riots

Editor’s note: This statement was originally published on Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s X account. Translated from the Italian by DeepL.

(LifeSiteNews) — The scenes of urban warfare that have ravaged Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Limoges, and—in Italy—Milan, Turin, Bologna, and other cities in recent days cannot be reduced to mere street riots: they are manifestations of violence and barbarism that transform the streets into battlefields.

Looting, the burning of public buildings and stores, attacks on law enforcement, hundreds of people injured, thousands arrested: what is presented as a protest against the high cost of living is in reality one of the main tools of the scientific plan through which the globalist technocratic elite intends to introduce and fuel pockets of civil war among the population.

Economic hardship is real, but it is deliberately exacerbated and then diverted. Organized groups—Black Bloc, far-left cells, gangs of mostly non-EU youth acting “without orders” according to the French model—transform theoretically peaceful demonstrations into controlled and incited chaos. The goal is clear: to create a pretext for legitimizing new forms of repression, social control, and the curtailment of remaining freedoms. There is nothing spontaneous about any of this.

I condemn the complicity of those in power. They have helped create the conditions of impoverishment and alienation, and now they are using the unrest to strengthen the repressive apparatus, all while issuing hollow condemnations.

I also condemn the betrayal of the conciliar-synodal church hierarchy, which is entirely subservient to the globalist technocratic elite. Instead of calling souls back to order, justice, and the perennial Truth, it remains silent—or worse, acquiesces—preferring dialogue with the powers of this world to fidelity to the Gospel and the Magisterium of all time. When authority—both civil and ecclesiastical—ceases to restrain error and instead becomes its vehicle, the schism that St. Paul describes as the “mystery of iniquity” (2 Thessalonians 2:7–8) is consummated.

Division is the work of the divider, Satan. Those who deliberately fuel chaos in order to then impose their own order do not act for the good of souls, but to consolidate a power that has rejected Christ the King. Until this scheme is unmasked, every pretext of “renewal” or “social justice” will remain in the service of iniquity.

Let us gather around the unchanging Truth and the Apostolic Tradition. Let us not endorse error; let us not condone falsehood.

“Stand firm and hold fast to the traditions you have been taught” (2 Thessalonians 2:15).