
A preliminary response

Nota prævia
in response to an article
by Dr. Gwyneth A. Spaeder
that appeared in “Corrispondenza Romana”
On December 15, in the Italian-language section of the Corrispondenza Romana website, an article was published by pediatrician Gwyneth A. Spaeder which intended to refute my statements about the Covid “vaccine” in the letter which I sent to the American bishops and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on October 23, 2021.
I believe that those who are familiar with my writings and read them regularly know that I do not usually make rash statements, nor do I take positions on controversial topics without taking great care to check the facts. This is required by the seriousness of an impartial critique and by the authority of my role as Archbishop, as well as by respect for those to whom I speak. Whether I make pronouncements on questions of strict doctrinal or moral relevance, or if I address topics only indirectly tied to Religion, I believe I have never shrunk from facing criticism or from having a healthy discussion, precisely because I am persuaded that the truth does not belong to any one person, but rather it can manifest itself – and at times appears even more evident – by means of an honest confrontation with those who have different ideas. The scholastic disputatio teaches us this – something which significantly disappeared after the Council – as proof of the wisdom of the Church.
In the specific case of the psycho-pandemic farce and the vaccine campaign for Covid, I have had the opportunity to inform myself, to consult authoritative doctors and scientists, to read, and to investigate those aspects which, understandably, are not the immediate competence of those who are not familiar with the subject. Once I formed an idea on the subject, I felt it my duty as a Shepherd and Successor of the Apostles to send a letter to my brother bishops in the United States and to the CDF, in which I highlighted the serious problems of the experimental gene serum in terms of effectiveness as well as safety, and also its moral liceity.
Dr. Spaeder’s article has not in any way refuted my arguments, since it limits itself to repeating the script that Big Pharma kindly provides to its retailers, on the model of FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions – that every company makes available to its customers.
For this reason, considering that the attempted refutation came from a doctor, I thought it would be appropriate to step aside, consulting Doctor Massimo Citro Della Riva, a talented doctor who is the author of various publications about the pandemic, one of which, entitled Apocalisse [Apocalypse], is about to be published. It will therefore fall to Dr. Citro Della Riva to respond to Dr. Spaeder on the merits of her argument, employing the competence and knowledge of the facts of one who is certainly more qualified than I am in the discipline of medicine. I would like to clarify that on December 21, I forwarded Dr. Citro Della Riva’s letter to Corrispondenza Romana, but as of today it has not published it, as was requested and as it ought to have done. This is why I wanted to share Dr. Citro Della Riva’s letter with Church Militant, allowing readers to evaluate its contents for themselves, and, in light of this response, also to evaluate the gaps and inaccuracies in Dr. Spaeder’s article.
I am sorry to see – and I say this with regret as someone who knew the Director of Corrispondenza Romana in times when he was appreciated as an authoritative conservative Catholic intellectual – that Professor Roberto De Mattei has ventured into a minefield, offering himself to give media support to the pandemic narrative and to the supposed effectiveness, safety, non-dangerousness, and moral liceity of the gene serum. And I am even more sorry that, in doing this, Professor De Mattei has relied on the pen of Gwyneth A. Spaeder, a person who does not exactly appear to be impartial, but who instead presents multiple conflicts of interests both because of her professional formation and also because of her connections with Johns Hopkins University and IQVIA, where her husband Dr. Jeffrey Spaeder works. I will leave it to journalists to investigate the role of her father, George Weigel, a famous neo-conservative who is the biographer of John Paul II and a signer of PNAC, the Project for the New American Century, along with, among others, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Jeb Bush.
It seems to me that the involvement of Dr. Spaeder, at least in relation to her relatives, reveals an ideological closeness with clearly identifiable political circles. I do not know how Professor De Mattei, whose Fondazione Lepanto has an office in Washington, may be related to them. It would be the case that the Director of Corrispondenza Romana and the President of the Fondazione Lepanto, who on many occasions has invited me not to concern myself with political and medical questions, has clarified his position and was the first, as a practicing Catholic, to give an example of transparency and consistency, avoiding strange political connections.
Having said this, I leave it to Dr. Citro to refute Dr. Spaeder’s arguments.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
24 December 2021
Vigil of Most Holy Christmas