Originally published at National Catholic Register
In announcing the decision, the archbishop of Sassari, Archbishop Gian Franco Saba, urged the community to pray for the unity of the Church.
“With a supreme and definitive decision,” Pope Francis expelled from the clerical state for the crime of schism Fernando María Cornet, an Argentine who served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Sassari, Italy.
Cornet, 57, wrote a book titled “Habemus Antipapam?” (“Do We Have an Antipope?”), published in 2023 by the publishing house Edizioni del Faro, the Argentine newspaper La Nación reported. In his book, Cornet asserts that Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was invalid and, consequently, so was the election of Pope Francis.
In announcing the decision, the archbishop of Sassari, Archbishop Gian Franco Saba, urged the community to pray for the unity of the Church.
“The members of Christ must not be in conflict with each other; all those who form his body must each fulfill their own office … so that there may be no divisions,” he said.
The archdiocese also announced that the vicar of the Historic Urban Center Subzone, Father Antonino Canu, will serve as parish administrator of St. Donatus and St. Sixtus in Sassari.
He will be assisted in his
