Michael Voris: Do you think God is growing angry with the conditions of things in the church, speaking in human terms?
Bishop Schneider: Yes, I would not use the expression angry. This is a very human expression, and it is not accurate. God is above this, our emotional movement of the soul as anger and so on. I would use another way. God is disapproving of this. It is contrary to His will, of course, and therefore God rejects these by His essence and His will, because God is only sanctity and truth by essence, by His being. And God rejects evil always. This is another expression in the Bible, which is used well in the Latin era, anger. But there is another expression in English, wrath, anger, yes, expressed in human terms. In human terms, this means the rejection of evil, and God rejects evil because God is, in Himself, not a contradiction. At the same time, God loves sinners and those who are in error, to attract them to holiness and to truth. Like a good pastor, He goes seeking and waiting until they come back, and all humanity is such in this error.
The church has the divine task to substitute for God, to go and bring back sinners and those who are in error, like the good shepherd. Jesus told in the Gospel that when the Good Shepherd brought back the sheep, the angels in heaven had more joy over one sinner who repented. This is essential, the sinner who repents. Not only was there joy that the sinner came back, but the repentance itself is essential. Today, this attitude of some clergy, bishops, and cardinals eliminates repentance. You have to be a good shepherd, and you have to be merciful. You have to go to the periphery and bring back the stray sheep. We have to do this, and the church always did this, not only today. You have to help them to truly repent, to accept the will of God. This is salvation.
Of course, there were times in the history of the church and humanity when God also could inflict some punishments. We see this clearly in the Old Testament. Even St. Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians, regarding the abuse of the Eucharist, “You have abused the Eucharist, unworthily. You have eaten and drunk judgment upon yourselves” (1 Corinthians 11). Therefore, in your community, some are already dead or ill. This is a punishment of God, clearly, because they abused the holy. Reading the Apocalypse, we see very impressive descriptions of the punishment of God for the world that rejects Him. This will come, but we don’t know when or in what manner. We cannot predict it. We have to be careful not to be these prophets; it is not our task. God reserves this to Himself.
Sometimes there are signs, such as the general and incredible immorality and moral degradation of our modern world. It is tremendous, and it could be that God can intervene, but we don’t know when or how. We have to be vigilant ourselves first and then warn our neighbor.