Pope Francis has just excommunicated former Vatican diplomat Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò for refusing to recognize and submit to his authority.

Here’s the news from CNN:

Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former papal ambassador to the United States who became an ultra-conservative critic of Pope Francis, has been excommunicated for schism.

The Vatican said in a statement that the prelate had refused to “recognize and submit” to the authority of the pope, and had rejected “communion” with members of the Catholic Church and its authoritative teachings.

In 2018, Viganò released a bombshell dossier calling on Francis to resign and accusing the pope of knowing about allegations of abuse of trainee priests carried out by the former cardinal of Washington, DC, Theodore McCarrick, and failing to act. A Vatican inquiry later challenged Viganò’s account and cleared Francis.

As a Vatican diplomat, the archbishop was tasked with serving the pope, which makes his excommunication for schism highly unusual. The ruling means the archbishop cannot receive the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, such as communion.

The Vatican explained Friday that Viganò was excommunicated following an “extrajudicial penal process,” although the archbishop has said he did not “recognize the legitimacy” of the process.

Recently, the archbishop has said Francis’ election to the papacy should be considered “null and void” and has instead accused the pope of “heresy and schism.”

Excommunication is an extreme punishment and one that I think is unnecessary in this situation. I would have rather seen a punishment that still allowed Viganò to receive communion in the Catholic Church.

Regardless of how one may feel about Francis, who has made some highly controversial decisions as the head of the Church, he is still our pope and he deserves that recognition at the very least from every Catholic.