FOREST LAKE, Minnesota, March 30, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― A former papal nuncio and famous Vatican whistleblower has linked the coronavirus to chastisement from God for sin while calling on Pope Francis to “convert” for having brought into the Church the “terrible sacrilege” of the idolatry of Pachamama.

“The Pope, the Hierarchy, and all Bishops, Priests and Religious must immediately and absolutely convert,” Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò stated in a March 29 interview with Michael Matt of The Remnant.

“This is something the laity are calling for, as they suffer because they have no firm and faithful guides. We cannot allow the flock which Our Divine Lord has entrusted to our care be scattered by faithless mercenaries. We must convert and go completely over to being on God’s side. We cannot reach any compromises whatsoever with the world,” he said.

While stating firmly that the Church as Bride of Christ is not “even minimally imperfect,” the archbishop blasted both prelates and minor clergy for their scandals and infidelity.

“In these troubled times, there have been many clerics unworthy of the name, as the abuse scandals committed by them and, unfortunately, even bishops and cardinals, have shown,” he told The Remnant.

“The faithlessness of the Sacred Pastors is a scandal for their confreres and for many among the faithful, not only in terms of lust of thirst for power, but also — I might say especially — when they touch the integrity of the Faith, the purity of the Church’s teachings and the holiness of morals.”

Viganò mentioned in particular the “adoration” of pagan wooden statuettes before and during the Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazonian Region last October.

“[These clerics] have even committed acts of unprecedented gravity, such as we saw with the adoration of the pachamama idol in the Vatican itself,” he said.

“Indeed, I think Our Lord has rightly become indignant at the great multitude of scandals committed by those who ought to be setting a good example, because they are Shepherds, to the flocks to whom they have been entrusted.”

The archbishop attracted international notice when he accused Pope Francis of supporting then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick despite knowing of the latter’s sexual predation upon young men. Yesterday, he stated that bad examples given by the hierarchy are a scandal not just for Catholics.

“It is a scandal for those outside who look at the Church as a lighthouse and a point of reference,” Viganò said.

Coronavirus “the divine wrath beating down upon the world”

The archbishop referred to the coronavirus pandemic as a “scourge” and “the divine wrath beating down upon the world.” He said the hierarchy should make “a proper examination of [their] conscience for giving in to the spirit of this world” and “condemn firmly all those errors [they have] allowed in after the second Vatican Council.”

He did not exempt Pope Francis from these strictures and again alluded to the honors given to the Andean Pachemama, including the strange ritual in which a bowl of plants was brought to Pope Francis during the closing Mass of the Amazon Synod and placed on the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica. The bowl of plants strongly resembled a traditional offering to the pagan fertility goddess.

Viganò believes that penance must be done for these offenses.

“It pains me to have to say that even now, after we have seen the divine wrath beating down upon the world, we go on offending the Majesty of God by speaking of mother earth demanding respect, as the Pope said a few days ago in his umpteenth interview,” Viganò told The Remnant.

“What we must do is ask forgiveness for the sacrilege perpetrated in the Basilica of Saint Peter’s, and reconsecrate it before the Holy Sacrifice of Mass can be said there,” he continued.

“We should also call a public procession to show penance, even if only Prelates take part under the Pope’s guidance. They must call down the mercy of God upon themselves and upon His people. This would be a sign of that true humility we are all waiting to see, as reparation for all the offences committed.”

The archbishop was stunned and imagined that others must also have been stunned when, in a recent homily, the Argentinian pontiff suggested that all Catholics bow down to one kind of idol or another.

“How are we to contain our bewilderment when we hear words like those said in Santa Marta on 26 March?” Viganò asked.

“The Pope said, ‘The Lord must not find us, at the end of our lives, and say to us, “You are corrupt. You have left the path I showed you. You have bowed down before idols,’” he recalled.

“Such words as these are truly bewildering, especially if we remember that he himself brought off a terrible sacrilege before the eyes and ears of the whole world, before the very Altar of the Confession of Saint Peter, a real profanation, an act of pure apostasy, with those filthy and satanic images of pachamama.”