Transcript:
Raymond Arroyo:
He’s an Auxiliary Bishop in Kazakhstan and a staunch defender of the Traditional Church teaching. Last week I spoke to him at length about the Pachamama idol controversy and the Amazon Synod and his new book with journalist Diane Montagna, Christus Vincit, Christ triumph over the darkness of the age. This week, I’m pleased to bring you part two of this very important interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider, take a look. Your Excellency, you spend a chapter in the book Christus Vincit, discussing secularism and this new dictatorship, which I would suspect is responsible for much of what we’ve been discussing the ambiguity in the Church, the ambiguity and confusion we see. This is what you write, “Now we have reached a peak of secularism, of this complete independence of man, of this enormous anthropocentrism where everyone decides for himself what is true and what is good or evil. Such secularism brings us a horrible and cruel society. We are witnessing this— it is cruel. And what is the result? Egoism, Secularism leads to egoism. We have now reached a peak of egoism— and egoism is cruel: only I, and no one else.” Where does this lead, this idea, this thinking, this pervasive movement in society? And how is this related to Benedict XVI dictatorship of relativism?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider:
Yes, maybe we can go back further. This secularism and anthropocentrism is, to my opinion, the core of sin itself, because when Adam and Eve sinned, they wanted to be without God. So, this is secularism, without God, we alone: God, no. We exclude God. This is the core of every sin. This is the continuous temptation of man, individually and collectively, to exclude God from all from their personal life and their social life. But they cannot be a vacuum, when you exclude God, you have to put something in its place. So these are idols, and therefore, the entire humanity lived in idolatry and this was the gravest sin as seen by Jews, the Hebrew people, and all the prophets continuously fought against these deep sin. But then Christ redeemed us from all sins, especially from this grave sin of idolatry and secularism.
Raymond Arroyo:
When you were last here, we spoke about the interreligious dialogue, particularly the Abu Dhabi document, which I’ll get to in a moment. In the book, you spend a chapter, an entire chapter devoted to Islam and the de-Christianization of Europe. And you write this, “For several years now in Europe, we have been witnessing a massive influx and presence of Islam and its effect is supplanting, and in some cases overtly opposing, what remains of Christian European culture. But since the recent war in Syria, the influx of Muslims into Europe has been, at least in part, organized by those who plan to Islamize Europe. And to Islamize Europe means practically to destroy Christianity in that region, to de-Christianize Europe.” What’s to be gained by de- Christianizing Europe? By whom?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider:
The only religion, as we already said, the only true religion built by God, is the Catholic Church, the Catholic Christianity. This is the only religion which is supernatural. To give God the central place, the true God which is, Jesus Christ, the incarnate God in our public life. So, secularism started in the 18th century, specifically. Then supported and spread with the FreeMasonic ideology and political powers, which was to eliminate Christianity, or at least the influence of the light of Christ in public life and they did this throughout 200 years. Now, Europe is practically not anymore Christian in public life. In this vacuum, now comes the coming of Islam and this is also a strategic movement to use the Islam to further de-Christianize Europe, which already was de-Christianized through secularism in European countries.
Raymond Arroyo:
And we need to talk about the other day. As I said a moment ago, we talked about that Abu Dhabi statement that the Pope signed earlier this year. In it, he says, or the document says, the pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race, and language are willed by God, in His wisdom, does God really will that kind of pluralism, religious pluralism, other religions?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider:
Of course, no, this is a contradiction to the entire divine revelation. God said in the first commandment, “You shall not have other gods”. This was the constant appeal of the prophets in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ also said, “There is no other way than I, I am the only way.” Jesus said, “I am the truth”. So this statement contradicts divine revelation to say that God wills, the diversity of religions. So this is completely contradicting the entire revelation, and this movement opens the door, which we are now witnessing in Europe, to welcoming the spread of the Islamic religion. According to the statement of this phrase in the Abu Dhabi document, God wills the diversity and pluralism of religion, so God wills also the Pachamama religion with their cult, it was a logical consequence. So, we have to go back again to the roots, and reject this phrase in the statement or similar statements as contradicting divine revelation.
Raymond Arroyo:
Another subject you cover in your book is the doctrinal confusion, which we have been seeing over the last few years here. I want you to react to a point in the book where you talk about decentralization. Here’s the quote, “There can be no decentralization and doctrinal matters; otherwise, the Catholic Church would be transformed into countless doctrinally different Christian denominations, as we can see occur daily in the Protestant world. There can be a decentralization in pastoral approaches, which of course, always have to be in conformity with doctrine. How do you square that with this synodal approach to governance that we’re seeing coming out of Rome?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider:
Yes, we have to clarify what that synodal means. It is, in my opinion, only a means to promote a specific agenda. The agenda to protestantize the Catholic Church further and to introduce new doctrines and new practices in the Church, as we already mentioned in the Synod of the Amazon; the abolition of the priestly celibacy, the introduction of a female diaconate, and etc. The equality and diversity of all religions is a further step and using the term synodality for this aim.
Raymond Arroyo:
You talk about the loss of the supernatural in the book, you dedicate a whole chapter to that as well. How important is it to recover a sense of the supernatural? And why has it been lost? People clearly want it. I see it when I speak to children in schools. They have a very refined sense of the supernatural. You have to almost beat it out of them. What has happened to us as a society and the Church?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider:
Yes, the supernatural is God himself. His divine life is supernatural. By definition, creatures are natural, not supernatural. This is the basic difference between God and the creature; the supernatural. The greatest gift and mercy of God was that he was so condescendent to us to invite us feeble, humbled creatures from our simple nature, to go to this other level of life and knowledge in His own divine life. This is supernatural to give us a part and to take part in His own life. So, the Amazon Synod was the contrary of the Gospel, because the main stress and impact was placed on the material aspects of the temporal nature not so of the supernatural.
Raymond Arroyo:
Yeah. Before I let you go, you talk here about reforming the Church at the end of the book, what would be your recommendations to reform the College of Cardinals?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider:
We have to reform, of course, the College of Cardinals with men who are true men of God, who are true apostles, who have the purity and integrity of the Catholic and Apostolic Faith, as it is called, in the Canon of the Mass. We have to renew the College of Cardinals with men who are in some way one hundred percent sure with the purest integrity of the Catholic faith and in moral life.
Raymond Arroyo:
What would be your advice to the layman watching tonight, considering all that coming out of Rome now, and that they’re hearing in their own communities and around the world?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider:
First, I would say. Dear brothers and sisters from the laity, I thank you very much as a Bishop, for your fidelity, which you have kept in these dark times. Please keep this fidelity and I encourage you to read good catechism books which you know, it would be better to read the old catechism because it is clear and simple which deeply reflects the Gospel. This is one of my advice to you and the other is to pray as a family, to pray the rosary, to make hours of reparation for the sins of the high clergy, who betray Christ today, and also to pray for good new priests and to support good bishops who have courage, strength, and wisdom to be faithful shepherds in these dark times.
Raymond Arroyo:
Christus Vincit, Christ’s triumph over the darkness of the age by Bishop Athanasius Schneider is available in bookstores everywhere online and through EWTN Religious Catalog at EWTN rc.com.
