Spanish Novus Ordo Priest Laicized by Leo XIV for Rejecting Francis as Heretical Pseudo-Pope

Leo XIV punishes Rev. Francisco José Vegara Cerezo…

Spanish Novus Ordo Priest Laicized by Leo XIV for Rejecting Francis as Heretical Pseudo-Pope

Francisco José Vegara Cerezo, pictured above, is a Novus Ordo priest in the diocese of Orihuela-Alicante, Spain. Or rather, he was. The Church of Infinite Dignity, Limitless Mercy, and Perpetual Inclusion has decided that he is being expelled from the clerical state. This means that, for all intents and purposes, he is to be considered an unordained layman again.

The diocesan Novus Ordo bishop under whom this is happening is José Ignacio Munilla Aguirre (b. 1961). Munilla had referred the case of the Rev. Vegara Cerezo to the Vatican’s so-called Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. That is the department whose prefect is ‘Cardinal’ Victor Manuel Fernandez, who acts in the name, and with the mandate, of ‘Pope’ Leo XIV.

The dicastery has a disciplinary section, in accordance with ‘Pope’ Francis’ reorganization of the Roman Curia a few years back:

Art. 76

§ 1. The Disciplinary Section, through its disciplinary office, deals with delicts reserved to the Dicastery and adjudicated by the Supreme Apostolic Tribunal established therein, which then declares or imposes canonical sanctions according to the norm of law, both common and proper, without prejudice to the competence of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

§ 2. With regard to the delicts mentioned in § 1, the Section, by mandate of the Roman Pontiff, will judge Cardinals, Patriarchs, Legates of the Apostolic See and Bishops, as well as other physical persons, in conformity with canonical provisions.

§ 3. The Section promotes the training programmes offered by the Dicastery to Ordinaries and legal professionals in order to foster a proper understanding and application of the canonical norms related to its proper area of competency.

(Antipope Francis, Apostolic Constitution Predicate Evangelium, II.76)

Rumors regarding Vegara’s dismissal from the clerical state first began flying around social media on June 21, but now the diocese has corroborated it: The Rev. Vegara Cerezo is being reduced to the lay state.

This is being reported today by an independent Spanish-language news site:

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has confirmed the expulsion from the clerical state of the priest from the Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante, Francisco José Vegara Cerezo.

This has been confirmed by diocesan sources to Religión Confidencial, who emphasize that it is a painful decision.

…

The controversy erupted at the beginning of 2024, when this priest, well-known throughout the Alicante region of Vega Baja, published a manifesto accusing the late Pope Francis of heresy. At the time, the priest stated that he had acted “in good conscience” and that, during all this time, he had not found anyone capable of refuting his positions, which led him to consider Francis a heretic and not the legitimate Pope.

…

Far from retracting, a year later, in January 2025, the priest went to the bishop’s office to submit a document accusing Pope Francis of heresy and apostasy based on the content of various statements made by the Holy Father in recent years. In his declaration, the priest criticized documents from Pope Francis’s pontificate, such as Amoris Laetitia, Fiducia Supplicans, and Dignitas Infinita.

In December 2024, the Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante sent all documentation related to this case to the Vatican. A year and a half later, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith informed the Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante of the decision to impose the penalty of laicization.

(Javier Arias, “El Vaticano confirma la reducción al estado laical del sacerdote alicantino Francisco José Vegara Cerezo”, Religión Confidencial, June 23, 2026; bold print in original; automatic translation.)

Vegara had been ordained for the diocese in 1993. Just as Roman Catholic doctrine holds, so too Novus Ordo doctrine says that the priesthood, once received in ordination, cannot be lost. Thus, for the Novus Ordo Church (Vatican II Church), Vegara remains technically a priest, but now he is not allowed to exercise his priesthood any longer.

As Vegara’s ordination was presumably carried out in the 1968 Novus Ordo rite of Antipope Paul VI, by the rules of traditional Roman Catholic sacramental theology, its validity ought to be considered doubtful (and therefore must be considered invalid in practice). However, this is of minor relevance to us here. The point is that as far as the Vatican II Church is concerned, Vegara was validly ordained but has since been stripped of all positions in the diocese and now even of the priesthood itself, as it were. He is forbidden from acting as a priest ever again.

Vegara Cerezo was in good public standing in various assignments until early 2024. According to one news report, he was removed from his last-held position of pastor at San Isidro parish on Feb. 6, 2024.

On Feb. 19, 2024, Vegara published a 20-page “Manifesto in Defense of Catholic Doctrine” (Spanish original: Manifiesto para Reivindicar la Doctrina Católica), in which he accuses ‘Pope’ Francis, then reigning, of heresy, provides detailed documentation, and concludes that he is not a valid Pope. That same day, he gave an interview on a Spanish-language podcast:

(direct link here)

Among the evidence the Spanish Novus Ordo priest presents against Francis, accusing him of a ‘heretical magisterium’, we find the following:

• Evangelii Gaudium (2013), n. 247: “We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for ‘the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable’ (Rom 11:29).”
• Amoris Laetitia (2016), nn. 299, 301, 303-305, 307 — various errors regarding holy matrimony, justification, and sins against the sixth and ninth commandments
• A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together (Abu Dhabi, 2019): “Freedom is a right of every person: each individual enjoys the freedom of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition of a cultural way of life that others do not accept.”
• Desiderio Desideravi (2022), n. 5: “The world still does not know it, but everyone is invited to the supper of the wedding of the Lamb (Rev 19:9). To be admitted to the feast all that is required is the wedding garment of faith which comes from the hearing of his Word (cf. Rom 10:17).”
• Fiducia Supplicans (2023), n. 31: “Within the horizon outlined here appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex, the form of which should not be fixed ritually by ecclesial authorities to avoid producing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage. In such cases, a blessing may be imparted that not only has an ascending value but also involves the invocation of a blessing that descends from God upon those who—recognizing themselves to be destitute and in need of his help—do not claim a legitimation of their own status, but who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit. These forms of blessing express a supplication that God may grant those aids that come from the impulses of his Spirit—what classical theology calls “actual grace”—so that human relationships may mature and grow in fidelity to the Gospel, that they may be freed from their imperfections and frailties, and that they may express themselves in the ever-increasing dimension of the divine love.”
• and more!

Unfortunately, Vegara believes that the reason why Francis was not a valid Pope is that the resignation of ‘Pope’ Benedict XVI in 2013 was invalid — a belief we have termed ‘Resignationism’ — but that should not distract us from the main point.

The important thing to note is that Vegara had the intelligence, the integrity, and the fortitude to recognize and call out Francis’ heresies and denounce him as being a false Pope. He did this knowing fully well that he would have to face some very unpleasant temporal consequences for doing so. Where most others would keep silent for fear of temporal hardship (such as loss of income and retirement), Vegara spoke up.

On Feb. 29, 2024, the diocese published an announcement that Fr. Vegara Cerezo had been stripped of all positions in the diocese:

For several months, both the Bishop and others designated by him have met with Father Vegara Cerezo to listen to him, engage in dialogue, and, ultimately, due to his persistent stance, admonish him in writing. During this time, possible personal factors have also been identified that may be affecting his behavior and the proper exercise of his pastoral ministry. For these reasons, on February 6, as part of the ongoing investigation, among other measures, he was removed from any office or position in the Diocese.

(“Nota Aclaratoria e Informativa”, n. 2, Diócesis Orihuela-Alicante, Feb. 29, 2024; automatic translation.)

On Jan. 23, 2025, just after the diocese had sent the case files to the Vatican, Vegara doubled down and visited the diocesan chancery office in order formally to denounce the diocese itself — ultimately, Bp. Munilla, the local ordinary — for assenting to Francis’ heresies. Vegara made a brief video about it while there.

Fr. Francisco Vegara displays a copy of the letter he entered into the diocesan register on Jan. 23, 2025
(image: informacion.es/fair use)

The full text of what he submitted was published by the Spanish-language site Información the very same day. We are publishing this automatic English translation of it:

I, Francisco José Vegara Cerezo, priest of the Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante, in fulfillment of my obligation to defend the sacrosanct Catholic doctrine, denounce my diocese for considering as authentic magisterium, and thus adhering to:

• Firstly, the exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which changes the objective Catholic moral paradigm, and also the approval of the interpretation made by the Argentine bishops, which contradicts the dogma of the Church by allowing absolution and communion to those who, without a firm purpose of amendment, remain in a state of grave sin;
• Secondly, the declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which justifies the blessing of irregular couples, both heterosexual and homosexual, which signifies the blessing of sin—always accursed by God—and even of that which He deems abominable;
• And, thirdly, the declaration Dignitas Infinita, which is not only heretical but reaches the point of apostasy, as it claims that man possesses an infinite natural dignity, rooted in his being, and accessible by his own natural light, thereby consequently denying original sin and the entire supernatural realm founded on grace, which, as its very name indicates, must be gratuitous on the part of God and not claimable by a supposed infinite dignity that would obviously demand rights of the same kind.”

(Source)

The Spanish site InfoVaticana also reported on this, on Jan. 24.

When Francis died in April of 2025, Vegara expressed “respect” for “the so-called Pope Francis”, but without budging on any on his accusations of heresy.

Now Leo XIV has decreed that Vegara can no longer act as a priest. How seriously he will take this punishment will depend on whether he recognizes Leo XIV as a valid Pope, which is not known to the present writer. It may be that he considers the 2025 conclave null, the Francis-appointed ‘cardinals’ to be ineligible as electors, and, in any case, Leo XIV to be a public heretic, since he has endorsed Francis’ magisterium and continues it.

Let us pray for Francisco José Vegara Cerezo so that, having taken such a brave step in the face of such undesirable consequences, he may come to realize also that the ostensibly magisterial deviation from the Faith did not start with Francis but with John XXIII and Paul VI and their Second Vatican Council, and that the validity of his priestly ordination is in serious doubt.

Perhaps other former Novus Ordo priests who have since become sedevacantists can reach out to him and offer to help.

May the holy Virgin of Fatima intercede for and guide Francisco Vegara!

Title image source: composite with elements from Shutterstock (Alessia Pierdomenico) and adoracionyliberacion.com
Licenses: paid and fair use