The marriage of right-wing political paranoia with anti-vaccination foolishness is enough of a public-health debacle on its own without grafting reactionary Catholicism onto it as a bonus. (This letter reeks of the old anti-Masonic Catholicism, from the days when joining the Masons meant automatic excommunication. I’m not that nostalgic for the days of Leo XIII.) Vigano long ago staked out his position as one of the leaders of the opposition to Papa Francesco, so he’s comfortable out there on the fringes. But pandemic trutherism in the alleged service of the gospel is a whole ‘nother level of nutty.

Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire.