Robert Moynihan - Finding Vigano: The Man Behind the Testimony that Shook the Church and the World

FINDING VIGAN

FINDING VIGAN

IN SEARCH OF THE MAN
WHOSE TESTIMONY SHOOK THE
CHURCH AND THE WORLD

ROBERT MOYNIHAN

in conversation with

ARCHBISHOP CARLO MARIA VIGAN

TAN Books
Gastonia, North Carolina

Finding Vigan: In Search of the Man Whose Testimony Shook the Church and the World 2020 Robert Moynihan

All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the BibleSecond Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), copyright 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

Cover design by Caroline Green

Cover image: Carlo Maria Vigano, Archbishop during the 8th edition of the National March for Life on May 19, 2018 in Rome, Italy. Photo by Stefano Montesi/Corbis via Getty Images.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020945692

ISBN: 978-1-5051-1619-9

Kindle ISBN: 978-1-5051-1618-2

ePUB ISBN: 978-1-5051-1620-5

Published in the United States by

TAN Books

PO Box 269

Gastonia, NC 28053

www.TANBooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

To my father,
William Trumbull Moynihan
(19262020)
May eternal light shine upon him.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels.

2 Corinthians 4:7

The greatest persecution of the Church doesnt come from enemies on the outside.

Pope Benedict XVI

When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, let him who reads understand. Mans mind is a holy place and a temple of God in which the demons have laid waste the soul through passionate thoughts and set up the idol of sin. Some say that these things will also happen when the Antichrist comes.

St. Maximus the Confessor

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

You are the fairest of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips.

Psalm 45:2

He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

Isaiah 53:2

CONTENTS

ARCHBISHOP CARLO Maria Vigan is a man standing in the middle of a storm. His allegations regarding Theodore (former) Cardinal McCarrick, the Roman Curia, and the code of silence permeating the Church have made him the focus of much attention from the media, both Catholic and secular. Many love him; many condemn him.

The archbishop has commented on numerous hot-button issues in the Church today. As is often the case in the tangled web of human affairs, it can be a challenge for interested Catholics, laity and clergy alike, to make sense of this difficult time in the Church. TANs publication of this work is neither a public endorsement nor condemnation of the archbishop. Rather, it is a search for the man himself, his facts, and his opinions.

Shortly after the archbishops original Testimony in August of 2018, we contracted with Robert Moynihana man we trustto shed light on these difficult issues. Moynihan is the longtime publisher of Inside the Vatican magazine and one of our generations most respected journalists covering the Catholic Church. He is widely respected in Rome and throughout the world for his orthodoxy, his love for the Church, and for his fair-mindedness. And, we might add, it is no exaggeration to say that he is one who knows much of the Vaticans inside baseball. However, paramount in our estimation of choosing a man for this job was our confident knowledge that Robert Moynihan is truly a son of Holy Mother Church who strives always to think with Her, as do we here at TAN.

Along the path of his distinguished career, Moynihan developed a personal relationship with Archbishop Vigan. This relationship led to his being one of the very few to gain access to the man at an undisclosed location. Through his questioning and analysis of the archbishop and his statements, as well as through the knowledge he brings to this project, Moynihan successfully opens a window into the soul of Vigan so that readers may obtain a more complete picture of the man whose testimony so shocked the Church and whose additional statements and interviews continue to do so.

Upon contracting with Moynihan, the archbishop was not well-known among the Catholic laity, but it was clear that he was, for the foreseeable future, here to stay. He was going to raise more issues; he was going to take on what he believed to be the systematic abuse of Vatican power; he was going to call out those he thought to be apostates in the Church with a vigor to which we are unaccustomed.

We want to assure our readers that the leadership of TAN questioned many times: Does the publication of such an interview help or hinder Holy Mother Church? We did so on our own initiative from the very outset, but also in the ensuing months as some people cautioned us against setting out on this road, given that Vigan has turned into such a lightning rod in Church affairs. Moynihan, too, has had similar experiences. That said, we concluded the former. We concluded we were taking more of a journalistic approach to this work and that it was a service to the Church for a publisher with TANs reputation for orthodoxy to engage with this story. If TAN were a newspaper, such considerations would not be an issue. But when one puts the interview into a book, it is often presumed that the publisher endorses every word and utterance. We ask the reader to draw this simple distinction and make up his own mind as to the credibility of the archbishop.

Now, since the signing of this contract with Moynihan, the archbishop has made even more controversial statements that have, frankly, muddied the waters in the sense that the present work does not delve into his statements on Covid, Vatican II, and the like. As a publisher, we have a moving target, and it is difficult to keep up with the news cycle, impossible in fact in this particular case. At any point in the process, from contracting to publication, the archbishop will have said more than is covered in the book.

The present volume serves as a partial biography of the archbishop from childhood to the present day. Furthermore, it is a detailed analysis (by Moynihan) of Vigans original Testimony. The interview questions and Vigans answers help the reader to better understand the archbishops motivations as well as, in certain ways, the man himself. We feel that this knowledge is essential for Catholics struggling to make sense of these events.

Lastly, the publisher and the author have discussed the possibility of a second volume, referenced in this text, that would explore the archbishops more recent controversial statements.

In time, Holy Mother Church will have the final word on the archbishops statements. And TAN Books will faithfully follow all she says, through thick and thin, through financial success or failure, through public praise or scorn.

We pray for the archbishop, his supporters, and his enemies. We pray that the Lord ultimately uses the archbishop to bring about truth and unity within the Church. And lastly, we pray for the good intentions of the Holy Father.