Pope Francis expels Argentine from the priesthood due to schism

Pope Francis expelled from the clerical state “with a supreme and definitive decision” the Argentine Fernando María Cornet, who carried out his ministry in the Archdiocese of Sassari (Italy) for the crime of schism.

The 57-year-old priest wrote a book titled Do we have an antipope?published in 2023 by the Edizioni del Faro publishing house, according to the Argentine newspaper The Nation. There he raises the invalidity of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, and consequently, of the election of Pope Francis.

Al communicate condemnation, the Archbishop of Sassari, Bishop Gian Franco Saba, urged the community to pray for the unity of the Church, keeping in mind that Christians “have God as their Father and the Church as their only mother” and are members of the body of Christ.

“The members of Christ must not be in conflict with each other; “Everyone who makes up your body must each perform their own job… so that there is no division,” he stated.

Likewise, the archdiocese announced that the Vicar of the Urban Historical Center Subzone, Fr. Antonino Canu, will serve as Parish Administrator of San Donato and San Sisto de Sassari.

The priests of Cottolengo who already work in the Historic Center and other priests present in the pastoral district will collaborate with him in the pastoral service, the archdiocese specified.

The statement, dated November 13, 2024, has the signature of the Chancellor of the Archbishopric, Fr. Antonio Spanu.

According to La Nación, in mid-May, a letter from the Vatican asked Cornet “to withdraw the book from circulation, to publicly state that it had errors, to ask for forgiveness and to recognize Pope Francis as the legitimate Pope.”

However, the former priest said that “he could not do it because that is not the case and also because no one from the DDF (Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith) was able to explain to me what the errors in my book are, no one ever gave me an argument.”

Cornet foresaw this condemnation falling on him and stated that for writing his book “he would have been persecuted by someone who illegitimately occupied a place that did not belong to him, causing the Church to enter into crisis with illegitimate decisions and illegitimate appointments of bishops.”

What is the crime of schism?

According to the canon 751 of the Code of Canon Lawthe law of the Catholic Church, schism exists when a baptized person exercises “rejection of subjection to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.”

“The apostate of the faith, the heretic or the schismatic incurs excommunication automatic decision“, that is, automatic, as established canon 1364 of the Code of Canon Law, and may also be punished with other penalties, including, in the case of priests, expulsion from the clerical state.