Vatican OUSTS Priest After Explosive Pope Attack

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City during sunset

The Vatican has stripped a Spanish priest of his collar after he publicly called Pope Francis a heretic and an invalid pope, raising fresh questions about free speech and truth inside the Church.

Story Snapshot

The Vatican confirmed the laicization of Father Francisco José Vegara Cerezo after he refused to retract claims that Pope Francis teaches heresy and was not validly elected.^[1]^[2]
The Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante says it spent months trying to “listen, dialogue, and admonish” Vegara before removing him from every office and sending the case to Rome.^[2]
Vegara has long argued in videos and letters that Francis’ teachings break with Catholic doctrine and that Benedict XVI’s resignation casts doubt on Francis’ election.^[6]^[8]^[10]
Catholic media are sharply split: establishment outlets describe the move as normal discipline, while critical sites call it “vengeance for Francis” and proof of persecution of dissent.^[1]^[3]^[12]

Vatican Punishes Priest Who Challenged Francis’ Orthodoxy

The Vatican has officially confirmed the “reduction to the lay state” of Father Francisco José Vegara Cerezo, a priest from the Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante in Spain.^[1] This step, known as laicization, means he is treated as a layman and can no longer function publicly as a priest. Reports say Rome acted after Vegara repeatedly called Pope Francis a “heretic” and claimed the pope was invalidly elected, directly rejecting the Church’s official line on the current pontiff.^[2]

The local bishop first removed Vegara from every office and assignment in the diocese, stating that he had spent months trying to talk with the priest and persuade him to withdraw his accusations.^[2] According to coverage, those efforts failed, and the bishop then sent the case to the Holy See for a formal decision. The Vatican’s confirmation of laicization shows that Church leaders treated Vegara’s public charges as serious dissent against papal authority, not just private disagreement or internal debate.^[1]

What Vegara Claims About Pope Francis and Benedict’s Resignation

Vegara’s supporters describe him as a priest who refused to stay silent about what he sees as false teaching from Francis. In a widely viewed video from early 2024, he presents himself as a “cancelled” priest and argues, using Church law, that Pope Francis’ actions on marriage, morality, and interreligious dialogue depart from Catholic doctrine.^[6] Other online content tied to Vegara includes an open letter and videos asking whether Francis is truly guided by the Holy Spirit, which directly question the orthodoxy of the current papacy.^[8]^[9]

His stance also appears linked to a broader argument that Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was defective, making Francis’ election doubtful.^[7] Similar claims have been made by other priests, such as Father Giorgio Maria Faré, who publicly argued that Benedict did not fully resign the papal office and that Francis is therefore an antipope.^[7] Faré and others point to controversial texts like the exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the Abu Dhabi statement on religious diversity, and Francis’ comments about all religions being “ways” to God as proof of serious doctrinal error.^[7]^[10]

A Wider Pattern: Priests and Scholars Accuse Francis of Heresy

Vegara’s case does not stand alone. Since 2016, groups of priests and scholars have issued several public documents accusing Pope Francis of heresy or “canonical delict of heresy.” In 2017, a “filial correction” from traditionalist academics accused Francis of spreading seven heretical positions on marriage, moral life, and the sacraments, largely tied to Amoris Laetitia.^[9]^[10] In 2019, nineteen theologians and clergy published an open letter asking the bishops of the world to address what they called “the grave situation of a heretical pope.”^[5]

That letter listed seven areas where they believed Francis had publicly contradicted divine law, including the claim that someone could knowingly break God’s law in serious matters and not be in mortal sin.^[5]^[12] The writers argued that a pope who holds such views cannot continue in office, even though they acknowledged the Church has no normal legal process to depose a pope.^[5] Other traditional media and commentators have repeated similar charges, saying Francis has changed moral teaching through “relativism” on issues like adultery, homosexuality, and abortion.^[14]

Media Spin: Discipline or “Vengeance for Francis”?

Coverage of Vegara’s laicization shows a deep split in Catholic media. Establishment outlets in Spain present the decision as a straightforward matter of Church discipline for a priest who publicly denied papal legitimacy and refused correction.^[1]^[2] They stress that the bishop tried dialogue and formal admonitions before sending the case to Rome, and that laicization is a recognized penalty in Church law for rejection of authority and doctrine.^[1]

By contrast, strongly critical sites like NovusOrdoWatch and LifeSiteNews frame the action as “vengeance for Francis” and persecution of a priest who raised serious theological concerns.^[1]^[3]^[12] These outlets argue that Rome’s silence about the exact canonical charges and evidence feeds suspicion and lets alternative narratives grow. Some even use confusing language, speaking of a “Pope Leo XIV,” which does not match the Church’s own recognition of Francis as pope, highlighting how fractured the Catholic world has become on this issue.^[3]