Strident Pope Francis critic faces schism trial

What happened

Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò said Thursday the Vatican was putting him on trial for the "crime of schism" and "denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis." Viganò, a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S., has denounced the pope in increasingly harsh terms — a liberal "servant of Satan," for example — since publicly calling on him to resign in 2018.

Who said what

Viganò, 83, said he "regards the accusations against me as an honor." Since 2016, he has "slowly moved closer to more conservative and eventually conspiratorial wings of the church and American society," Religion News Service said.

Trials for schism, or rupture with Catholic "unity" under the pope, are "exceedingly rare," The Washington Post said. But following years of increasingly "vitriolic attacks" from conservative clerics, Pope Francis is drawing a line.

What next?

Viganò will be tried in absentia if he doesn't appear in person, and his conviction could lead to defrocking and excommunication. Viganò took "some attitudes and some actions for which he must answer," said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state. "I am very sorry because I always appreciated him as a great worker, very faithful to the Holy See.… I don't know what happened."