Bishop Schneider: Then another area is the liturgy, the divine worship. There is a need to restore again the holiness of the Eucharist, the defense of our Lord, and the ineffable holiness and sacredness of our Lord. In the small, holy host, we must restore all the honor again to him, and also external protection and defense, because the Holy Eucharist is the heart of the church. When the heart is attacked, when the heart is weak, then the entire body has no strength. So I would also characterize one of the main spiritual sicknesses of the church in our day. I would say, in medical terminology, cardiothenia, Eucharistic, cardiothusia, it would be a Eucharistic heart disease. Eucharistic. This is the wound, the deepest wound. Our Lord is trampled. Our Lord is desecrated in the Holy Eucharist, especially through communion in hand, through such careless, superficial, minimal attention, honor, and defense; it is incredible. We must restore all the honor and holiness to the Lord in the Eucharist, and only then will the church be healed. Only then will there be a true renewal of the church. And it will last. Let us pray that the popes, Pope Leo or another pope, I don’t know, must start with the renewal of the Eucharistic faith, cult, worship, and adore.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum; benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
Adrian Milag: Amen. Welcome to our program, Ang Storyang Katoliko, Bishop Athanasius Schneider. What a great honor to have you, the good Bishop, here in our program.
Bishop Schneider: You’re welcome. Thank you for your invitation.
Adrian Milag: I already have a copy of your credo, and I’m browsing it. Wow, just the front page. It was so powerful. I’m sure many of those who read this have changed their life. And I’m looking forward to finishing this, Bishop. Before we delve into our question in our program today, maybe you can share how it all started, how you discerned your vocation as a priest, and how you became a bishop.
Bishop Schneider: Well, it’s a long story. I was born in the Soviet Union during the persecution of the Church by German parents, by those Germans who were deported by Stalin. And so I grew up in the underground Church. My parents were active in the underground Church. Helped priests to hide them, to organize prayers, secret prayers.
So this was my childhood. I grew up in this atmosphere, and I remember it, and I consider it one of the greatest graces of God in my life to have grown up in the underground, persecuted Church by holy confessor priests. And later we lived in the Estonian region. It’s in the Baltic states, still in the Soviet Union at that time.
And there we had a church. The communists allowed it to be open, but there it was, of course, checked and controlled. But nevertheless, it was open to people, and there was a priest, a Capuchin priest from Latvia, and he was a holy man. He was also in the camps, in concentration camps, and so on. And he gave me my First Holy Communion.
And even so, it was half secret, because the Secret Service checked all the people, but my parents did not fear. And so we had, we were four siblings, and after, because we had to drive 100 kilometers to this church on Sundays, and after, we had to wait several hours for the train back.
And so the priest invited us to his room. So we spent the Sundays in the room of this priest. And he radiated holiness. This was when I was, my age was about 12 years old. I realized this very, very clearly. This priest very much touched me with his holiness. He was very kind and very modest.
And so once after Mass, when we walked to the house of the priest, I asked my mother simply out of curiosity, Mother, how can one become a priest. We spoke in German at home only. And so she stopped and said to me these words: in order to become a priest, God must call. So this was all she said, and no more.
And this so deeply affected me. I did not understand at my age, I was 10 or so, what does it mean, God calls. But these words and this episode are so fresh in my memory, one of the freshest memories of all my life, this short conversation about how one can become a priest.
And then we moved to Germany later, when I was 12 or 13, more or less. And then I started to serve Mass, because in the Soviet Union it was forbidden for children to serve Mass, to be altar boys, only adult men could do it. Therefore, I could not serve Mass. But in Germany, I could.
And so, after the first Mass, which I served when I was more or less 13, finishing this Mass, in front of my memory was the face of this priest, this holy priest in Estonia, who gave me First Communion. In my mind, it was not a vision, but a very fresh memory. And in this moment, I felt I must become a priest.
It was such an interior voice. At least it was a feeling of certitude. Even when I was young, I was 13, but I was convinced I must become a priest. And since then, I have never doubted. And so I remembered the words of my mother, God must call. It is His work, and our work is to accept it and to receive it, and with His help to collaborate.
So this is the story of my vocation. And then later, I became a religious priest in the Congregation of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross in Austria. But they were originally from Portugal, Coimbra. And then I was sent to Brazil to help their good, holy bishop. He asked our congregation to help him in priestly formation.
And so I studied theology in Brazil with this holy bishop, and he ordained me a priest, Bishop Manuel. He already passed away. He was really a holy bishop and a defender of the Catholic faith. At that time, 40 years ago, more or less 30, there was the theology of liberation, which was a movement within the Catholic Church among priests and bishops with a kind of Marxist ideology.
They did a Marxist, socialist interpretation of the Gospel, completely politicizing the Church life. I remember when I came here in 1984, it was still the height of the theology of liberation. I know this very well. Completely secularized the Church life, all on sociology and so on.
And this holy bishop, he fought against this. And he really was a bishop of tradition. He was always in his cassock. No one ever saw him without a cassock, his bishop. And he was very humble, but very intelligent also. He was teaching, he was a professor.
And so I consider this a second grace of my life, that I had this holy bishop as my teacher and who ordained me. And then I was in Rome doing a doctorate in Patristics. And then I was appointed and elected general counselor of my order in Rome. So I had to be in Rome.
So I was 10 years in Rome, and at this time, there came a priest from Kazakhstan. I had no contact with it, even though I was born in Kyrgyzstan, which is in the south of Kazakhstan. I spent my life, my first life, there in the underground Church. But when we went to Germany, I had no more contact.
And then came a priest and asked me to come back to help them in the formation of priests, because they still used the Russian language, and I had not forgotten it. And so, with the permission of my superior, I was sent to Kazakhstan 25 years ago to help in the priestly formation there in Kazakhstan, basically in the region where I was born.
And so in the city of Karaganda, where I was teaching and helping formation, there died a martyr’s death a priest who was the confessor of my parents during the underground Church, Father Alexei Zaritsky, and who blessed me when I was a child. And he died there in Karaganda as a martyr, and he was beatified by John Paul II, blessed Alexei Zaritsky, a martyr priest who was close to my parents and who blessed me.
So I came exactly to this place where he was martyred, blessed Alexei, a friend of my parents, to help in the formation of priests. So I consider the deepest root of my vocation this blessed martyr priest who blessed me when I was a little child and who celebrated secret Mass in our house in Kyrgyzstan, and then the other holy priest who gave me Holy Communion.
And then, 19 years ago, Pope Benedict XVI appointed me auxiliary bishop in this diocese, Karaganda. And then 14 years ago, I was moved to the capital city to be an auxiliary, where I am now. And so I was ordained bishop in the Basilica of Saint Peter 19 years ago, in 2006, by the Cardinal Secretary of State Sodano.
It was not my idea, not my plan. It was the other people who decided about me, not myself. I only accepted it. I have never thought of being ordained in the Basilica of Saint Peter. It was not my idea, but I accepted it. And so I was there.
And since then, I tried to do my task as a bishop, to be a teacher of the faith, to strengthen people in the faith where I can, and also through writing books and articles and giving conferences in this difficult time of so much darkness, spiritual darkness, crisis, and uncertainties and ambiguities in the Church life.
I feel my task as a bishop is not to be silent, but to do my task as a teacher of the faith which I received in my episcopal consecration as a successor of the apostles, in union with the Pope and other bishops, of course. But sometimes in a family, when there is a problem, in a family you must speak also, you must be able to speak your concerns.
And so it was not for the sake of criticism, but for the sake of concern for the common good of our family, the Church. Therefore, I had to address, even during the pontificate of Pope Francis, some public prayers and petitions to the Pope to correct some things that had to be corrected and clarified. Basically, by God’s grace, I will continue to do this.
Adrian Milag: Amen. No wonder you are loved by the traditional and the conservative because of your very solid background. And thank you for speaking for the truth, especially for the Catholic Church, which was founded by Christ. In your book Credo, you warn against a false mercy that distorts doctrine. How is this affecting the Church today?
Bishop Schneider: Very much. Now we have a danger in the Church, an infiltrating movement under the pretext of mercy and accompaniment, to legitimize homosexual activity and homosexual acts. This is a movement in the Church going on with the so-called LGBT communities or Catholics or pastoral work.
But this is a huge deception and a huge intrigue, because these so-called LGBTQ people or organizations, they declare officially and repeatedly their aim, which is that the Church must change the doctrine on homosexual acts, change it, and say to them, you LGBT people, you can sin, you can commit homosexual acts. We change the doctrine.
Now this is the aim. We have to be very honest and not make up a game here. No, this is the aim. And Father Martin, the most famous activist and lobbyist of this tendency and this movement, in his books declares it clearly, openly, that the Church must change the doctrine regarding homosexual acts, therefore they must be approved.
This is the aim, not that these people or organizations repent or change or ask for help to live chastely and so on. No, they have no intention to convert. On the contrary, they will convert Catholic teaching against the Church, against Christ’s teaching, and the commandments of God.
And we had this very sad display last week. All the world was astonished that this LGBT organization was put on the official calendar of the Holy See as one of the Jubilee events. And they, as an organization, had a Mass in an important church, and they used the cross painted with the LGBT flag.
Even though they did not carry it through the Holy Door in St Peter’s Basilica, the LGBT flag, they carried the cross, which was desecrated by this LGBT symbol, by the Gay Pride symbol. This was a Gay Pride symbol, which is always used. And they, in their T-shirts, had these rainbow symbols, and even some of the homosexual couples went in with these T-shirts and holding hands.
This is an abomination. Through the Holy Door, we cannot. The Holy Door is a sign of repentance to gain the Jubilee indulgence. But this can only be gained when one repents of grievous sins. But they did the contrary. They displayed their same sex relationship going to St. Peter’s together.
And so we have to state this. This is an abomination that the Holy See put in the official calendar and allowed a bishop to celebrate Mass for them, without inviting them to chastity or to repentance or anything. It was a platform, a stage for basically the propaganda of the ideology of the LGBT movement.
That is to say that Catholic teaching must change, that homosexual acts must be accepted by the Church. This is their aim. And we cannot give such organizations a stage and a platform in the Church.
Adrian Milag: You mentioned Father James Martin. He just met with Pope Leo two weeks ago. What can you say about that meeting, Bishop?
Bishop Schneider: I said it is very regrettable. The Pope should not do this, because he is known in his books and writings as an advocate of changing the teaching of the Church, and this stance is already wrong. And when the Pope publicly receives him and makes a photograph, without clarification, this is already a sign that he, in some way, is not against him or not correcting him.
So this is a tacit sign that the Pope says, “Okay, you can continue”. And Father Martin explained it on social media as a triumphant message that Pope Leo said to me, that you can continue with this. Yes, but how could the Pope say this, of course we do not know if it is true, but Father James spread this news.
And if it were wrong or fake, the Pope and the Holy See must immediately intervene and make a statement that the Pope did not encourage him. At least this phrase should be said, but it has not been done until today. And so all the people, all the world, are left in serious doubts if the Holy See and the Pope really confirm this tendency to change the Catholic teaching on homosexual acts as Father James requires, without any clarifying statement.
I think it is a grievous omission on the part of the Pope and the Holy See, not to clarify it to the public, and even after this event in the Basilica of St Peter with the so-called LGBT community, without any clarification until now. I repeat, it is a grievous omission on the part of the Pope and the Holy See to leave Catholics and the entire world in ambiguity and doubts about an important commandment of God.
And also taking into account that there is going on for decades a worldwide political movement has been underway to implement the so-called gender ideology, which is basically the phenomenon of the LGBT movement.
Adrian Milag: Bishop, you’ve spoken of the need for a new syllabus of errors for our time. What urgent errors will need to be addressed?
Bishop Schneider: Yes, there are several, many points, but I would say within the Church, there are three main areas of doctrine which must be addressed by the Pope and clarified. First, that Christ is the only Savior, the only way for salvation, that no other religion is a way of salvation willed by God.
Only Christ is the one way that God gave and requires for all humanity. So there must be a statement with all possible clarity of the uniqueness of the way of Christ as salvation, and that other religions are not the will of God, do not correspond. God wills only one religion, this is the Catholic faith given by God.
Of course, other people can be saved also outside the Church, in other religions; this is another question. By God’s mercy and by God’s extraordinary ways, they can be saved, but not because they belong to a wrong religion, but because they have a pure conscience which only God knows, and they can be saved. This is the traditional teaching of the Church. So we have to avoid confusing these two elements.
So this is the first important issue. The second, all this which we now explain, I would call the divine order of creation of human sexuality, must be clearly stated again by Church teaching, all divine order, not Church; this is not a Church teaching, it is a divine teaching. It is a divine order.
The Church is not able to change the doctrine regarding homosexuality or other sins against the sixth commandment. This is the revealed truth. God revealed it in Holy Scripture and in the continuous, universal, ordinary, infallible magisterium of the Church through 2000 years.
It was said that all this, or any sexual act outside a valid matrimony, is a grave thing, a grave disorder, and is against the will of God, and puts people, when they purposely or with pride and unrepentantly commit these sins or lifestyle, in danger of losing their souls for all eternity in hell. This is a serious issue. Therefore, we must have a lot of compassion for these people who are advocates of homosexuality and LGBT. I have a lot of love for them and real compassion; they can lose their soul.
So this is the second issue. The third is the infiltration of a worldly feminism within the Church, concretely attacking the sacrament of Holy Orders, to infiltrate and in some way conquer Holy Orders for women, starting of course with the diaconate, starting female deacons, and then of course female priests, and not only priests, because they will not stop with the priesthood, they will go to the episcopacy, because the Holy Sacrament of Orders is one sacrament, one in three steps. So when they get the first step, they must go to the second and the third.
This is a growing influence and lobby within the Catholic Church by high-ranking bishops and cardinals. Recently, the president of the German Bishops Conference publicly, without shame, said that I like to see a woman priest at the altar, and he was not corrected. He is not punished. He is not advised. He is the president of the German Bishops’ Conference.
And other individual priests and cardinals speak in some way supporting female ordination. So I think these are the three main points that must be addressed in doctrine.
And then another area is the liturgy, the divine worship. There is a need again to restore the holiness of the Eucharist, the defense of our Lord, and the ineffable holiness and sacredness of our Lord. In the small, holy host, we must again restore all the honor to Him, also exterior protection and defense, because the Holy Eucharist is the heart of the Church.
When the heart is attacked, when the heart is weak, then the entire body has no strength. So I would characterize also one of the main spiritual sicknesses of the Church in our day, I would say in medical terminology, cardiothenia, Eucharistic cardiothusia, it would be a Eucharistic heart disease.
This is the wound, the deepest wound. Our Lord is trampled. Our Lord is desecrated in the Holy Eucharist, especially through communion in the hand, through such careless, superficial, minimal attention, honor, and defense. It is incredible.
We must restore all the honor and holiness to the Lord in the Eucharist, and only then will the Church be healed. Only then will there be a true renewal of the Church, and so it will last. Let us pray that the popes, Pope Leo or another pope, I do not know when, must start with the renewal of the Eucharistic faith, cult, worship, and adoration.
Adrian Milag: Absolutely, Bishop, what guidance do you give Catholics who are troubled by perceived ambiguities in certain documents?
Bishop Schneider: Well, we must look at other Church documents where there is clarity. So when people are reading some ambiguous affirmations in papal documents or in the Second Vatican Council, then they must look at the same topic which was spoken about before by a Pope or by another council with clarity. And there we have texts.
So read the old catechisms, please. There it is clearly indicated. And then hold on to these. Because when something was always taught by the Church for 1900 years, this is more sure for me. I will stick to this rather than to an ambiguous affirmation of representatives of the magisterium, popes, or the Second Vatican Council, who are relatively new in comparison with 1900 years.
This is solid. And what is clear is that I cannot base my life on something which is ambiguous, on something which is unclear. No one will give their life for an ambiguous thing. You can only give your life for something which is clear and true.
Adrian Milag: And Bishop, how do you respond to those who worry that your strong defense of tradition risks division in the Church?
Bishop Schneider: This is not division when we speak the truth. Our Lord also spoke the truth, and our Lord caused division even among the apostles. Our Lord said, when He spoke clearly about the Eucharist in John chapter six, then the disciples said, this is too hard, we cannot accept it. And our Lord said, “Okay, you can go away”. So he accepted division for the sake of the truth.
And then with the Pharisees, He spoke clear words with no compromise. So He caused division, and the Pharisees accused our Lord that He was dividing the people, exactly because He accused the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the high priest, because He spoke the truth.
The same accusation, when you speak the truth, you divide. They could say this even to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Apostle Paul, and all the Church Fathers. They were accused several times. Saint Athanasius as someone who was dividing, and even a pope, Pope Liberius, accused Saint Athanasius that he was dividing the Church because he defended the full divinity and clarity of expression of the faith.
And the pope accused Athanasius of dividing the Church, that he was not making peace with the bishops there who were basically heretical bishops, Arians. And therefore, the pope punished Saint Athanasius and excommunicated him, Pope Liberius. This is a historical fact, but it was for a short time, and then his successor, Saint Damasus, restored and praised Athanasius.
So you see, this is a short time. And when I defend Jesus Christ and His teaching, and when I am doing my task as a bishop, as a teacher of the faith, and I am therefore accused of dividing, it is an honor for me. So I am in good company with so many Church Fathers, and with our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I must add, I always try to defend the truth with charity, at least with respect. I do not use foul words, bad words, or polemics. In all my statements, I try to keep respectful language. This is important.
Adrian Milag: Is your name inspired by the saint, Bishop? St. Athanasius?
Bishop Schneider: You know, I was baptized, not Athanasius. I was baptized Antonius of Padua. This is the saint of my baptism, and I received the name Athanasius in the monastery when I made my religious profession. It was not my choice at all. I was given the name without knowing anything about it.
So it was for me, as a young religious, a complete surprise. Why I got the name Athanasius, I did not know in my youth. I was 22 or 23 years old. I did not know why they gave me the name Athanasius.
Well, I had known his life. I was reading the breviary and so on. But now I understand, since I have been a bishop for 19 years and have been basically thrown into the midst of the battle for the faith of our time, I understand more why divine providence probably gave me this name.
Adrian Milag: Bishop, why is Eucharistic reverence, particularly receiving on the tongue while kneeling, so vital for our faith today?
Bishop Schneider: It is so logical, so evident, so natural. When you look, if anyone would see our Lord with his eyes, his glory, what would he do? He would fall down. He would not stand. No. You see this with the apostles, with the women on the resurrection day, the day when they saw the risen Lord, they fell down and kissed His feet.
And the angels read the Apocalypse, there in heaven, the angels make even a prostration. And the elders adore the Lamb. And we weak, sinful people here on earth, we dare to say we stand. No, you cannot dare it.
When you really believe who is in the little host, not what, but who is in the little consecrated host, you cannot stand. You will fall down. You make yourself small and little before this unspeakable love of God in the Eucharist.
It is a necessity when you have faith. If you would know the gift and the greatness of the Holy Host, the Eucharist, you cannot stand. And then also to open your mouth, to let yourself be fed like a child. The Lord said, if you will not become like a child, you will not enter the Kingdom of God.
Children let themselves be fed by their mothers. This is such a loving gesture. Why do you not let yourself be fed by Jesus and open your mouth like a child?
And this is the surest way, like the publican who stood and said, I am not worthy. Like the publican who knelt behind in the temple and said, be merciful to me, and struck his breast. And who was standing? The Pharisee.
This is the standing position of the Pharisees, not the kneeling position. It is not the attitude of the Pharisees at all. It is the attitude of sinners, of the centurion, of the publican, of Mary Magdalene, and we are all sinners.
Adrian Milag: Yeah, Bishop, for those who are advocating receiving Communion in the hand, they always use this argument that the Lord gave the Last Supper by hand, not by mouth.
Bishop Schneider: It is not true. Why? Please give the demonstrations that prove it. There are no photographs. We have no description and no photographs of the Last Supper. So this is only a fanciful supposition. There is no reason why our Lord should have given it to the hand? Why is it not written? Nothing is written.
It is probably more likely that He gave the Holy Eucharist directly into the mouth, because this was a common custom among the Jewish people, and still today among Arab people.
And in our country also, when there is a meal, the father, or the head of the family, in this case, Jesus was the father of the family. He has the privilege, as a sign of love and respect for his children or his guests, even to take a piece of food and place it directly into the mouth of the guest.
I experienced this gesture once. I was once invited to my country by Oriental people to a meal, and the host said to me, as a sign of my honor and affection for you, please open your mouth. And he took a small piece and placed it in my mouth like Communion.
So you see, this was common in Jewish culture. So it is more probable that Our Lord gave Himself as a sign of love to the Apostles by placing it into the mouth, more probable than the other way, because the other way is a modern fantasy, a complete invention of modern customs, not of Oriental customs at that time, and still today in some Oriental countries. So this is not an argument at all.
Adrian Milag: Thank you for that, Bishop.
Bishop Schneider: I will add, even if it were so, the Apostles were already priests, even bishops. He made them bishops, and they had holy hands. They were not lay people. It is a dogma of faith that in the moment when the Lord said, “Do this in memory of me”, He constituted and ordained them bishops. And then He gave Holy Communion to them. Probably, he cleaned their mouths, but even if it was in the hand, they were already ordained and not lay people.
Adrian Milag: Bishop, you have consistently defended the teaching that Communion cannot be given to the divorced and civilly remarried. How can priests accompany the faithful without compromising doctrine?
Bishop Schneider: Of course, we must be very merciful and understanding in these situations, because often it is a tragic situation. We must help them, but from the other side, we must clarify their position and say with all charity, your situation is not according to God’s will, because you are living in divorce and adultery.
But try to pray for the strength of the Lord, not to commit adultery further with your partner. So we have to help them. If they are not yet ready, then as a priest, you can say, I will accompany you with my prayers so that you may receive the strength and grace of the Lord, not to continue living in adultery, but to try to live as a Christian, even when you now have this new partner and children.
Then educate your children well, give a good example, and do not go to Communion. This would be a wrong example. You would make a public sign that you are against the indissolubility of marriage and the holiness of the Eucharist.
Because you cannot receive the Holy Eucharist in a situation that is contrary to the will of God. You have to be humble and recognize that your state is not corresponding to the will of God.
Of course, God has patience and waits for you until you receive the grace and strength not to continue to live in adultery. And I repeat, we have to pray for these people. They can, of course, participate in other good works in the Church.
So Communion is not for them in this case. Communion would be like a remedy that, instead of healing, would harm them. Even a good medicine can harm a sick person if given incorrectly. The Eucharist is the best medicine, but when given to someone in this state, it will not help him but harm him.
And therefore Communion will not help him, and it would become a public contradiction to the teaching of God on the indissolubility of marriage and the holiness of the Eucharist, and would create further confusion.
Adrian Milag: With rising confusion of Humanae Vitae. How can Catholics rediscover the beauty of Catholic teaching on sexuality and family life?
Bishop Schneider: Well, read the teaching of the Church, the encyclical Humanae Vitae, the beautiful teaching of John Paul II on family. It’s so beautiful, so precious. His document Familiaris Consortio, for example, and his beautiful Letter to Families. And then the Church explains the reason why not to use contraception, because this is against the will of God. First, when you do something against the will of God, it does not bring you happiness at all. And then it is against nature. It is against what is deepest in your heart. Couples know this is something wrong that we are doing. It is against nature.
When you examine the moment of contraception, God created us in this way, not in the contraceptive way. Did God create us this way? And so we are doing something against an order which God really gave us. And then the conjugal life will be basically reduced to pleasure, and not more. And then true, deeper love will not grow.
And so we give a wrong message with this contraceptive mentality and methods that the world, the unbelieving people in the world, have promoted. This was a revolution of immorality and of separating the sexual act and the transmission of life, which were united. You cannot divide it.
And then, with this division through contraceptive methods and means and tools, they have spread all over the world in the last 60 years, a tremendous immorality. And so we have, as a Church, to give a testimony against this worldwide wave of immorality, sexual immorality, also in great part due to contraceptive methods and means.
Adrian Milag: Why is the Church not in favor of in vitro fertilization, especially for those couples who cannot bear a child?
Bishop Schneider: Because it’s against the order of God. How can the Church be in favor of something that is against the order of God? God ordered the transmission of life in a personal sexual act between legitimate spouses. The moment of conception of a child, of a new life God established, must be done in a personal manner as an act of mutual love of two spouses.
To separate these and start life in a laboratory by technicians is against the divinely established order. It degrades human life to animal life, to the life of plants. You can produce grain, chickens, and so on, but not human life. Human life is unique. It is created. Man is created according to the image of God.
In this moment, when life begins, in the moment of conception, God infuses the immortal soul, and not foreign people or technicians who join the two parts of mother and father so that life can start. It is a huge indignity against human life. Therefore, the Church can never permit it.
To have a child is not an absolute right of anyone. God decides. It is a gift of God. Couples must accept this with faith, humility, and trust. And maybe God calls them to adopt children. Maybe God calls them to another mission in life, and they will try to do the best, even without children, helping children with their means. There are many possibilities for people who have no children to help other children. So these couples must, in faith, accept the will of God and recognize that God may have given them another mission here on Earth.
Adrian Milag: And you compare gender ideology to the dictatorship of communism. How can Catholic families form children to resist such ideologies?
Bishop Schneider: This ideology is worldwide and promoted by powerful political elites internationally. It is promoted in the United Nations and in many countries, where political establishments occupy strategic places in the mass media, education ministries, and parliaments to promote the agenda, including homosexuality and other behaviors against what is seen as the divine order of man.
It is a kind of revolt, even a satanic revolt against God’s creation of man, this beautiful creation of man and woman. It is an attempt to destroy it and attack it with gender ideology and the LGBT movement.
But I repeat, they are very powerful politically and financially. Therefore, we must, as a Church, the Holy See in the first place, not collaborate with this. And the entire Catholic Church, together with other Christians and people of goodwill, must make an alliance, a coalition worldwide, to resist this worldwide ideology and to defend human nature, natural law, and the beauty of God’s created marriage and family
Adrian Milag: Yes, speaking of that Bishop, this very particular and very popular political figure, Charlie Kirk, if you know him, and what happened to him. He was assassinated on September 10 because of his fighting this ideology. So what can you say about this, Bishop?
Bishop Schneider: Yes, we already spoke about this, but I will repeat it. We must spread the good teaching of the catechisms. We must spread the lives of the saints. We must organize prayers, Holy Hours, rosary crusades, and formation sessions on our Catholic faith. We can do this.
Adrian Milag: Maybe this will be the last question, Bishop. How can the Church effectively evangelize in predominantly non-Christian countries such as Kazakhstan?
Bishop Schneider: First, our weakness is a lack of means to go outside because of the situation of the government and the people, but we must give testimony as the first Christians did, testimony with our lives. We must invite people to come to our churches and to our catechesis.
So in our case, the possibility to evangelize is to invite people, transmit to them the teaching, and personally contact people.
Adrian Milag: And Bishop, with all this darkness and confusion happening in the world and in the Church, are you still hopeful?
Bishop Schneider: Of course. A Christian must be hopeful. You cannot be a Christian if you do not live in hope. This is a divine virtue. And we know that Christ is the winner, and we are on the side of the winner.
Our faith has conquered the entire world, so we must be convinced and joyful in our faith and know that Christ is the winner.
Adrian Milag: Amen. Maybe one last thing again, Bishop. Do you think we are in the end times right now?
Bishop Schneider: I am not a prophet, but we have some signs that are already very apocalyptic. I do not know God’s time, which is different from ours. We do not know how long He will still give humanity a time of grace, whether society will return to Christianity and natural law, or whether the Church will flourish.
We do not know. It could be. But we already see a kind of pre-apocalyptic signs, clearly, these abominations and revolts against God. But the more evil increases, the more grace also increases. We must believe in this.
Adrian Milag: Amen. That is powerful, Bishop. And before we let you go, can you also pray and give us a blessing, and tell us how people can find your books or resources you want to promote to our viewers?
Bishop Schneider: Yes. I have a website called gloriadei.io, written together. These are my interviews, books, and articles. Every 13th of the month, at 9 pm US Eastern Time, I give a catechesis, and in another month, I do a question-and-answer session, so there is also a possibility to join this.
Adrian Milag: Yes, for sure, Bishop. Our viewers will join that. Thank you for sharing. It will be very helpful, especially in these times of confusion. And Bishop Athanasius Schneider, what a great honor to have you. I know you have many things to do, but you were still gracious in giving your time and wisdom. Thank you so much, and we hope to see you again.
Bishop Schneider: Probably next year I will visit the Philippines. It is probable, maybe later it will be specified, but I have some plans.
Adrian Milag: Is there any particular place in mind?
Bishop Schneider: Probably the Cebu region or the southern Philippines. That is my plan, but it will be specified later.
Adrian Milag: Thank you so much, Bishop. I had a great time. Please pray for us. We will be praying for you in everything you do. Bishop, thank you for standing for the truth and for the Church.
Bishop Schneider: Thank you also, Adrian, for your apostolate. As a young Catholic man, you love the faith, and you want to transmit it. This is a beautiful work. May God bless your work also. I will conclude this meeting with a short prayer and blessing.
Agimus tibi gratias, omnipotens Deus, pro universis beneficiis tuis. In saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Dominus vobiscum, et benedicat vos omnipotens Deus, Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus. Amen.
Thank you. Goodbye.
Adrian Milag: Amen. Thank you, Bishop.