Father Giorgio Maria Faré has been excommunicated and Father Fernando Maria Cornet has been laicized, both for publicly arguing that Francis is not the pope because Benedict XVI resigned invalidly.

Fri Nov 22, 2024 – 12:53 pm EST

(LifeSiteNews) — Two prominent Italian priests, Father Giorgio Maria Faré and Father Fernando Maria Cornet, have both been sanctioned for publicly arguing Francis is not the pope, with the former being excommunicated and the latter being laicized. 

Faré was excommunicated from the Church and removed from the discalced Carmelite order, according to a November 18 letter to the community from his superior, Father Miguel Márquez Calle, OCD. Fr. Cornet, an Argentine native priest from the Archdiocese of Sassari, was laicized directly by Pope Francis, per a November 13 statement from the archdiocese.   

Faré declared in a viral October sermon that he believes Pope Benedict XVI intentionally did not fully resign from the papal office, and therefore Francis’ election was invalid, making him an antipope. Cornet published a book last year entitled Habemus Antipapam? (Do We Have an Antipope?), also detailing why Benedict’s resignation was invalid, which inspired Faré’s thesis.   

Faré’s superior explained in his letter that the priest was excommunicated for schism and dismissed from the order after “obstinately and publicly” refusing to recognize Pope Francis as the legitimate Roman Pontiff. Faré was warned in a letter signed by Márquez just two days after delivering his sermon that he had 15 days to recant his statements or face excommunication and dismissal.   

“I hereby inform the entire Order and those concerned that on November 18, 2024, the decree of excommunication for schism and dismissal from the Order was notified to Fr. Giorgio Maria Faré, OCD. This measure follows Fr. Faré’s public and obstinate refusal to recognize Pope Francis as the legitimately elected Roman Pontiff and to remain in communion with him,” Márquez wrote.   

The superior added that Faré has 30 days to appeal the decision and is free to retract the “schismatic” statements at any time. Faré told LifeSiteNews that he intends to appeal the decision.      

Faré posited in his October 13 homily that Pope Benedict XVI, having inside knowledge of a plot by the St. Gallen Mafia to elect a liberal pope upon his death, decided to purposely resign invalidly:   

The Pope thus found himself at a crossroads: either allow an antipope to be secretly elected upon his death or attempt a strategy to foil the enemies of the Church by issuing a declaration with no legal effect. Incidentally, I point out that – even after the Declaratio – an invalid Conclave could have been avoided. The cardinals who noticed the anomalies in the Declaratio … could have immediately raised the issue and prevented a Conclave from being convened. This did not happen, so it is important to note that the actual responsibility for what happened should not be placed on Benedict XVI but, rather, primarily on those who understood and remained silent in bad faith.   

The clues Faré says Benedict left for the cardinals to decipher and take appropriate action on included adopting the title “Pope Emeritus,” continuing to wear his white cassock, and retaining his papal coat of arms.     

One piece of evidence Faré says points to Benedict’s resignation being invalid was the fact that he used the phrase “I declare to renounce” instead of saying “I renounce,” as is required. Faré also underscored that in the original Latin text of the resignation, Benedict only resigned from the ministerium, or the visible execution of the office, but for the resignation to be valid, he would have needed to resign from the munus, or the “office” of the papacy, according to Canon 332 §2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.   

Therefore, according to Faré, Benedict was pope until his death in 2022, and thus Francis is an antipope.