Italian priest excommunicated, another laicized for declaring Francis isn’t pope

(LifeSiteNews) — Two prominent Italian priests, Father Giorgio Maria Faré and Father Fernando Maria Cornet, have both been sanctioned for publicly arguing Francis is not the pope, with the former being excommunicated and the latter being laicized. 

Faré was excommunicated from the Church and removed from the discalced Carmelite order, according to a November 18 letter to the community from his superior, Father Miguel Márquez Calle, OCD. Fr. Cornet, an Argentine native priest from the Archdiocese of Sassari, was laicized directly by Pope Francis, per a November 13 statement from the archdiocese.   

Faré declared in a viral October sermon that he believes Pope Benedict XVI intentionally did not fully resign from the papal office, and therefore Francis’ election was invalid, making him an antipope. Cornet published a book last year entitled Habemus Antipapam? (Do We Have an Antipope?), also detailing why Benedict’s resignation was invalid, which inspired Faré’s thesis.   

Faré’s superior explained in his letter that the priest was excommunicated for schism and dismissed from the order after “obstinately and publicly” refusing to recognize Pope Francis as the legitimate Roman Pontiff. Faré was warned in a letter signed by Márquez just two days after delivering his sermon that he had 15 days to recant his statements or face excommunication and dismissal.   

“I hereby inform the entire Order and those concerned that on November 18, 2024, the decree of excommunication for schism and dismissal from the Order was notified to Fr. Giorgio Maria Faré, OCD. This measure follows Fr. Faré’s public and obstinate refusal to recognize Pope Francis as the legitimately elected Roman Pontiff and to remain in communion with him,” Márquez wrote.   

The superior added that Faré has 30 days to appeal the decision and is free to retract the “schismatic” statements at any time. Faré told LifeSiteNews that he intends to appeal the decision.      

Faré posited in his October 13 homily that Pope Benedict XVI, having inside knowledge of a plot by the St. Gallen Mafia to elect a liberal pope upon his death, decided to purposely resign invalidly:   

The Pope thus found himself at a crossroads: either allow an antipope to be secretly elected upon his death or attempt a strategy to foil the enemies of the Church by issuing a declaration with no legal effect. Incidentally, I point out that – even after the Declaratio – an invalid Conclave could have been avoided. The cardinals who noticed the anomalies in the Declaratio … could have immediately raised the issue and prevented a Conclave from being convened. This did not happen, so it is important to note that the actual responsibility for what happened should not be placed on Benedict XVI but, rather, primarily on those who understood and remained silent in bad faith.   

The clues Faré says Benedict left for the cardinals to decipher and take appropriate action on included adopting the title “Pope Emeritus,” continuing to wear his white cassock, and retaining his papal coat of arms.     

One piece of evidence Faré says points to Benedict’s resignation being invalid was the fact that he used the phrase “I declare to renounce” instead of saying “I renounce,” as is required. Faré also underscored that in the original Latin text of the resignation, Benedict only resigned from the ministerium, or the visible execution of the office, but for the resignation to be valid, he would have needed to resign from the munus, or the “office” of the papacy, according to Canon 332 §2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.   

Therefore, according to Faré, Benedict was pope until his death in 2022, and thus Francis is an antipope.   

To read Faré’s full sermon in English, click here.   

The Archdiocese of Sassari’s statement on Cornet, signed by archdiocese chancellor Father Antonio Spanu, indicated that he was also laicized for the crime of schism and interestingly noted that it was Pope Francis himself who made the decision.  

“It is known that the Holy Father Francis, with supreme and final decision, discharged the clerical state from the Mr. Fernando Maria CORNET, in accordance with art. 26 SST 2021 and dispensed from ecclesiastical celibacy for crimes contra fidem(schism),” the statement read.    

Because Francis himself passed judgment on Cornet’s case, the priest is unable to appeal the decision.  

Cornet explained in an interview earlier this year on the Italian YouTube channel Orizzonte degli Eventi (Event Horizon) that he began facing repercussions for his book, Habemus Antipapam? a few months after it was published. The priest explained that Archbishop Gian Franco Saba of Sassari met with him to discuss his book and was given a copy. A few months later, Cornet was verbally told that he needed to take the book off the market, publicly recant his position, and recognize Francis as the legitimate pontiff. After not recanting, the priest received an official letter accusing him of schism in August before he was ultimately laicized.  

After Benedict released his Declaratio in 2013, several other Catholic prelates and thinkers have suggested that Francis is not the pope, either because Benedict’s resignation was not valid or for other reasons. Among these includes another Italian priest, Father Ramon Guidetti, who was excommunicated in January after stating in a sermon that Benedict “never gave up the Petrine munus,” and therefore the “usurper” Francis is “not the pope.”   

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò on the other hand has posited that Francis lacked the necessary intention to become pope, regardless of the nature of Benedict’s resignation. Viganò was declared excommunicated by the Vatican for holding this position earlier this year.    

On the other hand, Bishop Athanasius Schneider has stated that “nobody has the power to judge Francis’s status as pope” because previous writings about a pope becoming a heretic, such as St. Robert Bellarmine’s, are only opinions, not doctrine, and that there is no one within the Church who has the power to declare him a heretic.    

“[I]n the case of a heretical pope, the members of the Church can avoid him, resist him, refuse to obey him, all of which can be done without requiring a theory or opinion that says that a heretical pope automatically loses his office or can be deposed consequently,” Schneider wrote.  

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