Fr. Mark Goring: Praise be Jesus Christ. I’m honored to have with me today His Excellency, the Most Reverend Athanasius Schneider, the exhorting Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan. Your Excellency, Welcome.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: It’s a joy for me to speak with you and with those who will listen about the beauty of our Catholic faith.
Fr. Mark Goring: Well, it’s an honor to have you. You’ve been a tremendous inspiration for me. I have a few questions for you. The first one is for young people. A lot of young people follow me on YouTube, and I want to begin with Scripture. St. Paul says to Timothy, “Let no one have contempt for your youth, but set an example for those who believe in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.” For our young people, Your Excellency, my question is, what practical things should a young Catholic do daily to grow in holiness?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: First, the indispensable source is prayer, daily fidelity to the prayer life, and deepening your prayer life because prayer is our union with God. Our Lord said, “If you are not with me, you can do nothing.” We have to be united to Christ first through daily prayer. The other essential thing to grow in holiness is to accept the cross, because this is the sign of every disciple of Christ, to follow Him and accept His cross with the help of God. The little crosses and other important events in our lives, which sometimes bring suffering, are opportunities to love Christ not only by words but by deeds. Our Lord said, “Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but who does the will of my Father.” Therefore, we must ask for the love of God’s will, “O Lord, let me love Your Holy Will in the little events of my life daily and in the greater, more important events of my life.”
Third, for us Catholics, devotion to Our Lady, Mary, is essential. To be children of Mary, without true, deep love for our Mother, we cannot grow in holiness. She is the most powerful intercessor and protector. The sacraments are also vital, as they are direct channels of God’s grace. Therefore, we should frequently receive the Holy Eucharist, or at least make a spiritual communion when sacramental reception is not possible. Regular confession through the Sacrament of Penance purifies us and restores us through Christ. These are some concrete examples and advice for living a Christian life and striving for holiness.
Fr. Mark Goring: Amen.Thank you. I know when I was young, I fell in love with the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, and in that prayer we say, “Thy will be done.” It’s so important for young people to fall in love with prayer and receive nourishment from it. Thank you. The second question is, I want to read what our Lord Jesus tells the rich young man: “If you wish to be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me.” My question is, what advice do you have for a young man discerning the priesthood?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: When you feel in your heart the call of the Lord to follow Him, be not afraid. Follow and trust in the Lord, and be ready, as the apostles were, to live all things and follow Christ. This is an extraordinary grace, a call to leave the world, family, and possessions completely. For a young man feeling the call to the priesthood, it is beautiful to desire to belong completely and exclusively to the Lord, 24 hours a day. This means renouncing marriage and family life to be completely at the Lord’s disposition for the salvation of souls.
A vocation to the priesthood must have these elements: being completely for the Lord and having a deep personal love for Him, along with a burning love for the neighbor in the sense of saving his soul for eternity. A priest is a man of eternity.
Fr. Mark Goring: Thank you, Your Excellency. We are living in a time when we need holy priests. If a young man senses that call, I encourage him to tell the Lord, “Lord, if You want me to follow You as a priest, make it clear to me and give me the grace.”
My third question regards the COVID vaccine. In Isaiah 49, the Lord says, “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forgets, I will never forget you.” Should a person take the COVID vaccine?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: It depends. There is nothing against vaccines in general, including COVID vaccines, provided it is proven that they will not harm your health. We must be prudent and morally assured that they will not cause damage.
Secondly, vaccines must not have any connection to abortion. We must reject categorically any abortion-tainted vaccine, whether through cell lines or testing involving aborted tissue, even if the connection is remote. The crime of abortion is extraordinary, and we cannot cooperate with it even indirectly. We are witnessing the greatest genocide in history, with millions of children killed since abortion was legalized in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere. Biomedical research using tissues from aborted children is horrendous and must not be supported.
We must also reject abortion-tainted vaccines to maintain an uncompromised and unambiguous witness against abortion. There are alternatives to such vaccines. Accepting abortion-tainted vaccines under the pretext of remote cooperation supports the deception that no alternative exists. Catholics must refuse these vaccines.
Fr. Mark Goring: I agree. In the UK, there is a panic, and authorities are pushing this vaccine on as many people as possible. England is traditionally a Christian country, yet there is no call to God, only reliance on human powers. This is dangerous, as you said. Bishop Strickland is advising the same: wait and do not take an abortion-tainted vaccine that has been rushed. Eternal life is more important than preserving our mortal life at all costs. Thank you, Your Excellency.
My next question is about the state of the world. First John says, “Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist.” He goes on, “They belong to the world, and the world listens to them.” The world seems to be turning away from God. With the great reset being pushed by some global elites, how do we live in hope as Catholics?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: St. John writes, “He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.” This is a vital word for our time. We must have hope and conviction that we are the winners because Christ is the winner. He triumphs with His cross and will triumph with us, even under persecution.
The so-called great reset will include persecution of Christians. We are already seeing this in COVID emergency norms, with discrimination against Christians as churches were closed while supermarkets remained open. Persecution will purify the Church. Over the last 50 to 60 years, the Church has faced a tremendous internal crisis, with relativism and adaptation to the spirit of the world.
Only suffering, only persecution, will purify the Church again, and this will be a time, and this will be a type of grace, because, as Paul says, while sin has abandoned us, grace is still more abundant. And therefore it will be a difficult time for us, but we have to be confident that, as St. John says in his epistle, he who is in us is greater and stronger than he who is in the world.
Fr. Mark Goring: My next question is, many Protestant denominations have split over the homosexuality issue. Do you think that the Catholic Church could split over the question of homosexuality?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: No, the Catholic Church in itself can never accept this evident disorder of creation, and it is also a sin. When it is practiced, it is a sin. So the Catholic Church itself can never accept it. The Catholic Church is one Church. Of course, there could be some Catholics who disagree. I would not say that the Church will be split, but Catholics could be divided on this question. The Church has clear teaching about the immorality of these actions and the objective disorder of these tendencies. It is a kind of disorder, a kind of psychological handicap.
There could be Catholics, and there already are not so few, who accept the spirit of the world, this moral degradation of accepting homosexual activity. This is against reason, against the order of creation of God, and against clear revelation, against nature. It is so evident that in the future, an ex-Pope or a current Pope may clearly demand of all Catholics, all bishops, and all priests to make a profession of faith, in which one point will be the immorality of homosexual activity. Some Catholics, priests, and bishops may deny or refuse such a profession of faith. There may be a split, but such a separation could be healthy so that they will not continue to undermine the life of the Church or contaminate it with the poison of the spirit of the world.
Fr. Mark Goring: Yeah, there are some leaders in the Church who are sowing confusion in this area. It’s just a sad thing. I like the way you put it. We’re talking about the immorality of the activity. Obviously, for some people, this is a cross in their life, and if we want to help people, we have to give them clarity, not confusion. Our deep identity and sexuality are such intimate parts of us.
I hear many people say that teachers in the Church who teach with clarity the beauty of the gift of sexuality, and also the call to carry our cross and resist our fallen passions, give them strength. They encourage us to be holy, to be saints, and to be virtuous.
In Luke, it says the two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. These are the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. My question for you is, have you heard of the recent Eucharistic miracles, and if so, what do you think of their significance?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Yes, especially two miracles in Poland have been recognized by the respective bishops. I would also add Blessed Carlo Acutis, who made a website on the Eucharistic miracles. I recommend visiting this website; it can be found easily on Google. These miracles are a grace of God, a help to confirm and strengthen our faith in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. For those whose faith was weakened, this miracle strengthens them. This is a merciful help of our Lord, similar to how our Lord helped the Apostle Thomas, who doubted His resurrection. Thomas could touch His body to confirm the faith. St. Gregory the Pope explained that Thomas, through this episode, helped us more by confessing our Lord and touching His body than the other apostles who proclaimed the resurrection without such a direct miracle.
I think these miracles are a merciful gift to our time, demonstrating the real presence of Christ. Our time in the Church is passing through a deep Eucharistic sickness. The deepest crisis of the Church is the Eucharistic crisis; faith in the true presence has diminished, especially with Communion in the hand. This practice has decreased the sense of sublimity and sacrality. Faith in the Real Presence and in transubstantiation has weakened. There is no more understanding that the bread is truly the body and blood of Christ. We have to restore the centrality of the Eucharist, Eucharistic faith, devotion, adoration, and proper gestures of respect, both interior and exterior. We should be thankful to the Lord for these miracles.
Fr. Mark Goring: Yeah, we’re living in a time of wonderful Eucharistic miracles. The Lord is showing us that it’s not only His body and blood but also His heart that was pierced for us, which He gives us every time we receive the Holy Eucharist. The world needs to open its eyes and see that God is real and gives us His very self in the Eucharist.
My next question: Our Lord Jesus says, “Behold, I am with you always until the end of the age.” There are many excellent and holy people working in the Vatican, but we also see some corruption and compromise. We also experience confusion over statements from the Vatican. Why should we not give up hope in the Church?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Because our Lord said the gates of hell will not prevail against the rock of Peter. We have to be confident that the Lord is the head of the Church. He is the captain of the boat, even in the greatest storm the Church is passing through. The Pope and Vatican staff are instruments. God permits, in His permissive will, that even the popes and those guiding the Church commit errors. The history of the Church has many examples.
The Church cannot ultimately be destroyed because it is a living, supernatural body, the Mystical Body of Christ. Like in a body, when the head is sick or cannot work well, the other members supply what is lacking. God is using many simple, faithful children today, cloistered people living a sacrificial life, hidden saints known only to God or a few people, to powerfully maintain the Church.
I call them the snowdrops, the little ones who, in the midst of the winter of the Church, announce the true springtime to come. Even in darkness, springtime will come, and the most beautiful sun is always shining in the Church, in the tabernacle, in the burning, living heart of the Eucharistic Jesus. This is our hope.
Fr. Mark Goring: Amen, that’s beautiful. We always have to have faith and never lose hope. My last question: St. Paul says the world in its present form is passing away. How do you imagine heaven?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Heaven is God Himself. We love Him personally. It is the immense community of love of the Father, who loves me eternally, Christ, my Redeemer, whom I will see, and the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies me. The Holy Trinity is the sweetest guest of my soul, already here in life. We will see Him face to face without end and love Him without end, as St. Augustine said. Now we are partly in Him through the sacraments, but then we will definitely be in God. This is our homeland. In Him, we will find all other things, all other persons, all other beauties. Heaven is God, the Holy Trinity itself.
Fr. Mark Goring: That’s beautiful. St. John says we will not need the light from the sun or the moon because the Lamb will be the light. You can be working at a desk, walking through a forest, or on a bus. If you are in the presence of God, it’s heaven. Away from God, because of our hardness of heart, it is purgatory or hell. God is in heaven. He gives the life and light that only He can give.
Your Excellency, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. On behalf of all faithful Catholics, thank you for your witness of truth, for giving us clarity, and for your humility and meekness. You don’t come across as angry. Many of us struggle with anger and frustration, but you speak with gentleness and love. This has been a real inspiration.
Do you want to say a little prayer for us to close?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: I will give you a blessing for your priesthood and for all who are listening, that this year we will be closer to Christ, closer to our goal, and that St. Joseph will protect us and bring us closer to Mary and Jesus. The Lord be with you.
Fr. Mark Goring: And with Your Spirit
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: And may Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Praise be to our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Fr. Mark Goring: Now and forever. Viva Cristo Rey.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Viva.