Editor’s Note: The Archbishop has written his own apologia pro sua vita, which is now available in English, through the linked image above.

What he says therein is more completely an exposition of his doctrinal and juridical position than in other documents.

Essentially, however, he has not modified or changed anything of what he has said in the past. He holds the Catholic position, which so many others, including myself hold as the only possible approach a Catholic can have to these subjects.

But he does take one step which he has not taken before.

He now asks his brother Bishops to hear his case and he formally accuses Pope Francis of being a usurper, heretic and schismatic.

But he continues to omit the necessary juridical specification of calling on a specific tribunal to hear this appeal.

Yes, he has appealed ostensibly to all the Bishops of the world. But juridically such an appeal means nothing unless he addresses a specific body, such as a provincial council or a general council.

If he ever realizes that in failing to do this he is making meaningless all he has said and is serving up all that his enemies need to condemn him, he will make a formal canonical appeal to the Bishops of the Province of Rome to convoke a Provincial Council, on the grounds mentioned in the Sutri Initiative. For that is the only body which can convene without Pope Francis’s permission and which can judge the accusation of usurpation of the Papacy.

Let’s pray for the Archbishop that he take that last but decisive step!