Interviewer: What should a priest do if his bishop is expressing heretical views?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: In that case, we should not follow what he says, but we should pray for his conversion. If he commands us to do something that is against the faith or against the sacredness of the sacraments, we must not obey him. However, he still remains the bishop until the Pope removes him.
Interviewer: Here is a question from a priest. My bishop has stated in his guidelines that people should not receive communion on the tongue. I do not refuse those who wish to receive on the tongue, and I plan to ignore my bishop’s directive forbidding communion on the tongue. Is this disobedience?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: It is not disobedience. I congratulate you, dear Father, on your behavior. Thank you. You are defending our Lord. I repeat: in this question, the issue is the Lord. The bishop does not have the authority to forbid people from making a gesture or act of profound reverence toward our Lord in the Holy Host during Holy Communion, a practice that was used and recommended by the Church for roughly a thousand years, not merely forty or fifty, but more than a thousand years. It is proven that almost all the saints we know received communion on the tongue. The Church does not have the authority to prohibit this, just as the Church does not have the authority to prohibit the traditional rite of the Mass, which was used for more than a thousand years.
Thanks be to God, Pope Benedict XVI restored the traditional form of the Holy Mass, because the Church does not have the power to destroy a long-proven tradition with so many spiritual fruits. This is the central point: such traditions bear many spiritual fruits. To forbid them diminishes reverence and care toward the Lord.
First, we must look to Him. As I repeat, these prohibitions issued by the bishop cannot be accepted. A priest, in good conscience, does not have to obey in this case, because what is at stake is the Lord, not the bishop.