The Verdict is In: Father Vegara Reduced to the Lay State
It was through the voice of the host of the YouTube channel Macabeo, the priest's spiritual son, that the news was disseminated: Leo XIV has officially signed the decree stripping Fr. Francisco José Vegara of his clerical state. According to him, Rome and the bishop of the diocese of Orihuela-Alicante, Msgr. José Ignacio Munilla Aguirre, deliberately « managed the calendar », awaiting the end of the canonical visit of the antipope to Spain to deliver the sentence and thus avoid simultaneous media scandal.
This sanction marks the culmination of a doctrinal showdown initiated in 2019. Ordained in 1993, Father Vegara gradually came to discover the illegitimacy of Pope Francis, and then of his successor Leo XIV, openly referring to them as « heretical antipopes ». After being removed from his post as parish priest of San Isidro, the priest chose to voluntarily renounce his diocesan stipend in order to preserve his freedom of speech, preferring « the food of heaven to the institution’s bowl of lentils ».
The War of Texts and the Accusation of Heresy
Far from submitting to silence, Father Vegara multiplied acts of theological rupture with the synodal line embodied by Bergoglio and then Prevost. In January 2025, he submitted a voluminous dossier to his diocese denouncing the Vatican's doctrinal deviations. His criticisms explicitly targeted major texts or Roman notes: Amoris Laetitia (and its reinterpretation by the bishops of Buenos Aires concerning the indissolubility of marriage), the declaration Fiducia Supplicans on the blessings of same-sex couples, the note Una caro from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, as well as the document Dignitas Infinita.
For Father Vegara and his supporters, these teachings that disfigure the constant teaching of the Catholic Church propagate error. Faced with what they describe as « the viperous tongue of Satan » — rhetoric instilling cognitive dissonance by mixing Catholic truths with modern compromises —, the priest called for absolute resistance.
The Murcia Episode and the Trial of « Controlled Dissent »
The affair took a more personal turn during a recent incident in Murcia. While attending a conference by Msgr. Athanasius Schneider — a leading figure of global traditionalism presenting his book Fleeing Heresy —, Father Vegara was denied the right to ask a public question. What's more, when he attempted to directly engage the prelate at the end of the event to present his sedevacantist theses, Msgr. Schneider refused debate and evaded him.
Father Vegara sees this as a major contradiction and theorizes the existence of « controlled dissent »:
« One can criticize the past without risk; but as soon as it concerns present errors, a red line appears. [...] A single drop of venom in a good speech is the most pernicious thing. And this drop of venom, in Msgr. Schneider's case, consists in fiercely defending what I consider to be anti-papacies, while at the same time calling to flee from heresy. »
Towards Excommunication?
For Fr. Vegara, who experiences this dismissal as a profound ecclesial injustice but also as a spiritual validation, the next logical step is excommunication, a sentence that would now depend directly on his bishop, Msgr. Munilla. The host of the Macabeo channel has moreover publicly challenged the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal "Tucho" Fernández, to excommunicate him as well in solidarity with the fallen priest.
This case is part of a broader dynamic of disciplinary exclusion by the Holy See. Other clerics, such as Fr. Fernando Cornet or Fr. Natale Santonocito in Sicily, have faced waves of harsh and swift sanctions. For the champions of the Remnant who support these priests, Rome seeks to impose silence and terror in order to definitively install heresy in a new synodal church carefully maintaining the outward appearance of apostolic continuity.
