CNN —Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former papal ambassador to the United States who became an ultra-conservative critic of Pope Francis, has been excommunicated for schism. As a Vatican diplomat, the archbishop was tasked with serving the pope, which makes his excommunication for schism highly unusual. The Vatican explained Friday that Viganò was excommunicated following an “extrajudicial penal process,” although the archbishop has said he did not “recognize the legitimacy” of the process. “I don’t know what happened,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, said recently about the now-excommunicated archbishop. The Vatican said Viganò had been told of the excommunication and that only the Holy See could lift the sanction.

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Persons: Carlo Maria Viganò, Pope Francis, Viganò, Francis, Theodore McCarrick, Francis ’, Kim Davis, “, ” Cardinal Pietro Parolin Organizations: CNN, Vatican, Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, State Locations: United States, Washington, DC, Francis, Vatican, Kentucky