Bishop Schneider: And therefore, I made an appeal to Pope Leo. Please, Holy Father, be a good shepherd, a generous shepherd, for these are your children also, half a million Catholics spread throughout the world in the Society of Saint Pius X, with more than 800 priests and religious seminarians who truly love you, who pray for you daily at Mass, and who recognize you as Pope and as their local bishop.
Why can’t you give them an exception? At the same time, you are so generous with other confessions, receiving the Lady Archbishop of Canterbury to have communion with her, visiting mosques, and engaging with other religions. Why can you not make the same gestures toward your own children and grant them, in an exceptional way, permission to consecrate bishops who will love you and pray for you? Later, you can find a solution together with them. It takes time.
And so, I appeal again, Holy Father. Do not go down in history, dear Pope Leo XIV, as the Pope who accepted or permitted a schism, or again excommunications and a wound reopened, which was not necessary. You could avoid it. You could avoid this wound of excommunications and anathema through generous pastoral justice.
This is my appeal, and the appeal of so many children. Holy Father, be a father, be a son of Augustine, make peace, and let your heart speak, not your entourage, who may influence you and counsel you to excommunicate them.
This is important. Yes, we must speak about this. I only quoted the Magisterium, not my own works, and I even quoted the Freemasons themselves, who have spoken about themselves. So this is not a conspiracy. I quoted the sources from the Freemasons themselves, as they describe themselves.
This is to show that this is a very dangerous sect, one of the most dangerous secret pseudo-religious sects, which is a form of gnosis, of Gnosticism, and at higher levels it increasingly approaches the worship of Satan.
The basic dogma of Freemasonry is relativism. There is no truth in religion. All religions are equal, and everyone can choose their own god, so to speak.
The second deep dogma is anthropocentrism, that man must be at the center of all things, not God. The greatest obstacle to this ideology of Freemasonry is Jesus Christ, the incarnate God. For them, this is the greatest obstacle, and what they reject most is the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.
This stands in complete opposition to the entire spiritual edifice of Freemasonry. Therefore, the true and full Catholic faith and the Church are considered by Freemasons to be their greatest antagonism.
For this reason, Freemasonry has always aimed to marginalize the Catholic faith and to fight against it. Now they have changed tactics, which is truly demonic. Instead of fighting directly against the Catholic faith, they have sought to infiltrate the Church from within and corrupt it with their ideas of relativism, naturalism, and anthropocentrism.
This, I believe, is the root of the current crisis of the Church since the Second Vatican Council.
Adrian: Again, Bishop, thank you for this opportunity. Could you lead us in the opening prayer?
Bishop Schneider: In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
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.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Adrian: It is such an honor and a great privilege, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, that I am able to meet you now face to face and to have you in our program, Storyang Katoliko. We Filipinos are so blessed to have you, Bishop. Thank you for what you do for Catholics and for defending the tradition. Could you first greet our viewers, Bishop?
Bishop Schneider: Yes, thank you, Adrian, for the invitation. It is also a joy for me to meet you personally here in the Philippines, in this beautiful Catholic country.
Adrian: Amen.
Bishop Schneider: And I greet all the viewers of your program.
Adrian: Thank you, Bishop. You mentioned recently that you have written a new book. Bishop, can you tell us about that book?
Bishop Schneider: Yes. Its title is Flee from Heresy. I was asked by some laypeople to make a summary of the most widespread errors of our time, and I wrote this book as a help for the faithful.
You know, when there is a time when disease is spreading, like an epidemic or viruses spreading, then a good physician, a good doctor, must provide people with healing medicines or warnings, saying, “Please, do not go there, or be attentive.”
The same is what a bishop must do. He is a father, a spiritual father of the faithful, and a bishop is also a spiritual physician, a spiritual doctor, who provides spiritual health.
And so this book is also a warning against dangerous spiritual viruses. It was written with the aim of true pastoral charity and love for neighbor. When I love people and their souls, I will not leave them in confusion or in a situation where spiritual violence is spreading.
Therefore, I consider this book, this warning against heresies, an eminent act of love for neighbor.
I divided this book into three parts. In the first part, I give a spiritual overview of heresies throughout 2,000 years of history, a small summary and description, so that people may discover that what we have today was, in some way, already present in past centuries.
Then, in the second part, I present the main heresies of our time in question-and-answer form. I ask a question and then provide an answer on how to address the error.
In the last chapter, I dedicate it to Our Lady, because she is invoked by the Church as the destroyer of all heresies.
Adrian: And Bishop, am I right that this is the third time you have been to the Philippines?
Bishop Schneider: I think it is even the fifth time.
Adrian: Fifth time, yeah. Okay, I am curious, what made you come to the Philippines for the first time?
Bishop Schneider: The first time I came, it was because I participated in the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences in Manila twice, since Kazakhstan belongs to Asia.
And we also belong to this organization, which is called the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences. I was representing my bishops’ conference twice in Manila at that time. Then the other three times, I came upon the invitation of faithful priests who love the Catholic faith, who love devotion to the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Mass.
Adrian: Wow. What did you discover about our country and the Filipino Catholics, Bishop?
Bishop Schneider: Yes, I discovered that God gave the Filipino people a special gift. You have quite a natural gift, in some way, for the Catholic faith.
The true Filipino is Catholic; he cannot be otherwise. This has been given so deeply by Divine Providence in the history of the Filipino people, the love for the Catholic faith and the very deep devotion and love for the Lord, especially for the suffering Lord and His Holy Mother.
Also, I think the Filipino people are distinguished from all other Catholic countries in the world by their love for the Child Jesus, the Santo Niño. Yes, this is your national love, I would say, your national devotion.
And as long as the Philippines venerates, loves, and honors the Santo Niño, our Divine Child, the Philippines will always be protected by God.
Adrian: Amen. What is your favorite Filipino food?
Bishop Schneider: Well, I love fruits more.
Adrian: Fruits, wow. I just mentioned earlier this morning…
Bishop Schneider: Because you have these good fruits which God gave us, mangoes, papaya, avocado, bananas, and many other fruits which I appreciate.
Adrian: For those watching you for the first time, Bishop, because I already know your story, could you share your journey? How did you begin? How did a boy grow up attending secret Masses under Soviet communist persecution? Can you tell us about it, Bishop?
Bishop Schneider: Yes, it is a long story, but I will try.
I belong to the so-called Germans from Russia. They went to the Russian Empire already in the nineteenth century upon the invitation of the Russian Tsar, the Russian Emperor, and they received lands as farmers, very pious Catholic farmers from southwest Germany.
My ancestors came from Alsace, close to Strasbourg, but German-speaking. They grew up near the Black Sea coast, in what is now Ukraine. Then, during the war, they were evacuated to Germany, East Germany, and my parents.
At the end of the Second World War, the Russian army occupied East Germany and made it communist, and arrested all these so-called Germans from Russia again and brought them back to the Soviet Union for forced labor. So my parents were in the Ural Mountains in the north for forced labor.
By a miracle of God, they survived these inhuman conditions. They said to me that only the Catholic faith gave them the strength to survive such conditions.
Then they were brought to a city there, in a German ghetto. It was a little better than in the woods, and there they helped organize a clandestine secret church. They organized secret prayers and so on.
Later, they moved to Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, where I was born. There, they also organized secret Masses and hid priests, because the communist government was persecuting priests.
And so I remember my childhood, the secret Masses. It was during the night. We had to close the doors and the windows, and the Mass was silent, not sung, because the police could hear it. And all night, a priest confessed to people and then started to celebrate Mass. On Sundays, we had no priest; maybe the priest came twice a year. So on Sundays, we had what was called the domestic church. Every family gathered, the children in their house, and the parents led prayers, the Rosary, litanies, and spiritual communion.
We united ourselves with the masses, which were celebrated all over the world. These were my deepest memories of my childhood.
Later, we moved to Estonia, still in the Soviet Union, where there was an open church, but of course controlled by the regime, and the priest who gave me my First Holy Communion.
There, it was an open church. We could travel 100 kilometers, but we were so happy because they said it was so close to us, just 100 kilometers, because in Kyrgyzstan, the nearest church was 1000 kilometers. So 100 kilometers was much closer.
So I was driving on Sundays, 100 kilometers one direction, 100 kilometers back to Holy Mass with this holy confessor priest. He impressed me so much. He gave me my First Holy Communion, and I think this situation with the confessor priest was the seed, the root of my priesthood vocation.
And my parents, Joseph and Mary, I declare their names. They were active members of the underground church and gave my siblings and me the Catholic faith, I would say, with mother’s milk. I consider this the greatest gift in my life. I received the Catholic faith with my mother’s milk in the underground church, and I consider this a greater gift than the priesthood, even greater than the episcopacy. I consider this a greater gift than the priesthood, greater even than the episcopacy.
Adrian: Wow, that was so inspiring. That is why you are now defending the truth and not compromising, speaking courageously and boldly.
Bishop Schneider: Yes. You know, when you experience this, I was already twelve and a half years old. I experienced and spoke with confessor priests who faced death.
One was martyred, the other was in prison for many years. He gave me my First Holy Communion. He spent many years in prison and could have been killed, but he was not killed and returned from prison because of his fidelity to the Catholic faith.
When you have experienced this, when you have had such holy priests, it marks you for your whole life. You know that you have nothing to lose when you defend the Catholic faith, the true, full, integral Catholic faith without compromise.
But now the situation in our day is different. In the communist time, we were persecuted by enemies outside the Church. Now, in our day, we have confusion within the Church itself.
Some faithful and priests are, in some way, persecuted, humiliated, and marginalized by high-ranking clergy who have power in the Church, and who impede priests and bishops who speak the full Catholic truth.
Nevertheless, we must continue to proclaim with charity but with clarity, with no ambiguity, the traditional, unchanging Catholic faith of all times and the beauty of the liturgy of all times, which all saints had.
The Traditional Latin Mass, I call it the Mass of the Filipinos, because the first Mass in the Philippines was exactly the Traditional Latin Mass in 1521 in Limasawa.
It was exactly the same Mass, the so-called Traditional Latin Mass. Therefore, it was the founding Mass of the Philippines.
Adrian: Amen.
Bishop Schneider: Therefore, please keep this Mass, spread it, and revive it in the Philippines. You can say it is our Mass of origin.
Adrian: Right? And speaking of that, Bishop, why did you write Credo?
Bishop Schneider: Yes, Credo. It was not my idea. Besides, almost all the books that I wrote were not my ideas. I was asked to do it.
So the Credo, I was asked by a father of a family, a large family from the United States. He asked me to do it, and I felt that this request from the father of a family was from God. I could not reject it, as a bishop, as a shepherd.
So, with the help of some theologians, I elaborated this book with the title Credo. It means in Latin, “I believe.”
It is a kind of catechism written in a traditional style, by question-and-answer, with short answers, and also taking into account the current errors of our time in order to address them.
It is different from the official Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was published by John Paul II. The official Catechism is written in another style. It is like a treatise, a book, and for simple people, it is more difficult to read and to understand.
Also, the content is sometimes too complex for simple people to grasp easily, and there are questions that were not addressed at that time, more than 30 years ago, such as gender ideology, for example.
So I dedicated questions to some current issues, including gender ideology. Also, in other catechisms, some topics are not considered. I dedicated a chapter to Freemasonry.
This is important. We must speak about this. I only quoted the Magisterium, not my own works, and I even quoted the Freemasons themselves, how they speak about themselves. So this is not a conspiracy. I used their own sources as they describe themselves. This shows that it is a very dangerous sect, one of the most dangerous secret pseudo-religious sects, which is a form of gnosis, Gnosticism.
At higher levels, it increasingly approaches the worship of Satan. The basic dogma of Freemasonry is relativism. There is no truth in religion. All religions are equal, and everyone can choose their own god, so to speak.
The second deep dogma is anthropocentrism, that man must be at the center of all things, not God.
The greatest obstacle to this ideology of Freemasonry is Jesus Christ, the incarnate God. For them, this is the greatest obstacle, and what they reject most is the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.
This is completely contrary to the entire spiritual structure of Freemasonry. Therefore, the true and full Catholic faith and the Church are considered by Freemasons as their greatest antagonism.
For this reason, Freemasonry has always aimed to marginalize the Catholic faith and to fight it.
Now they have changed tactics, which is truly demonic. Instead of fighting directly against the Catholic faith, they have sought to infiltrate the Church in order to corrupt it from within, with ideas of relativism, naturalism, and anthropocentrism.
This is the root of the current crisis of the Church since the Second Vatican Council. We are observing it. I do not say it is a work of Freemasons, but the similarities are striking. The crisis for 60 years from the Council onward is the primacy of relativism, through so-called ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. Christ is diminished in His uniqueness among other religions.
The second phenomenon within the Catholic Church since the Council is placing man at the center in the liturgy and in everything, while Christ is placed at the side. Even in churches, the Holy Eucharist, the living Christ, is placed on the side, and the priest places himself in his chair at the center. This is anthropocentric.
The manner of celebrating Holy Mass facing the people, like a closed circle around the altar, is no longer truly an altar; it becomes a table, and the center becomes the priest, not Christ. They say in theory Christ is central, but not in practice.
This is another basic characteristic of the crisis of the Catholic Church, which also resembles elements of Freemasonry ideology. This means giving primacy to nature, to earthly life, to temporal realities, at the expense of eternal truth, grace, and the spiritual life with God.
This is our crisis. We must return again to the center of Christ. Christ must be the center of all.
We must proclaim this with missionary zeal, ready to give our lives like the apostles, proclaiming that there is no other way to be saved. For no one, for Muslims, for Jews, for Buddhists, for Hindus, all cannot be saved without Jesus Christ, without believing in Jesus Christ.
Adrian: Amen.
Bishop Schneider: This we must state again with love and clarity, proclaiming Christ as the unique way. And then we must place the Incarnation of God again at the center of our worship and our churches.
We must place the tabernacle at the center and give the greatest honor we can to the living, incarnate God in the Eucharist. The priest, together with the faithful, must turn toward Him in the tabernacle during Holy Mass, turning toward Him. He is the center.
When we again begin to venerate and honor Christ at the center as He deserves, as God truly incarnate, only then will the Church be renewed. Without renewal of Eucharistic veneration and reverence, especially in Holy Communion, we must kneel down as Our Lord. Kneel down, not standing. And open your mouth like a child. Jesus said, “Unless you become like a child, you will not enter the Kingdom.” So kneel down, open your mouth like children, and the priest gives you the Body of Christ with great reverence and attention. This must be restored.
Then again, the beauty of Catholic marriage, chastity in youth, the priesthood, and a new priestly generation of holy priests, faithful priests, apostolic zeal. These priests and bishops are the future of the Church.
This is already happening with you here, with these beautiful young families and good initiatives all over the world, like yours, Adrian, and others, to defend and proclaim the Catholic faith.
Adrian: Amen. Bishop, you mentioned that all religions are part of God. Can you talk about the Abu Dhabi document?
Bishop Schneider: Yes. Unfortunately, there was a document signed by Pope Francis and Muslim representatives in Abu Dhabi in 2019 about the so-called human fraternity and living in peace together.
We have nothing against human fraternity and living in peace. This is good. But in this document, there is also a hidden poison, which in its substance denies the Gospel.
Now I will quote this phrase: “The diversity of religions is willed by God.” It also mentions diversity of sexes, nations, languages, and cultures as willed by God the Creator. This is impossible. This is a heresy. How can God will the diversity of religions in the same way He wills the diversity of sexes, male and female, in marriage?
It is impossible to put this on the same level as the same object of the will of God, because they are simply enumerated in the same phrase. In this way, God does not will idolatry. He prohibits it and punishes it with eternal condemnation.
The First Commandment of God says, “You shall not have other gods, other religions”. This is the First Commandment. Our Lord said, I am the only way to the Father. And Saint Peter, the first pope, spoke to the world on Pentecost that there is not given to all humanity another name in which they can be saved except the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, and this phrase of Abu Dhabi is, de facto, as it is written, denying the Gospel and the First Commandment of God. We must state this, and we cannot accept it. We must continue to proclaim the uniqueness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Adrian: Yes, it is an important issue right now, Bishop, especially with the SSPX planning a consecration in July 2026 of a new bishop. So what is your assessment of the situation?
Bishop Schneider: Yes, I know this Society because Pope Francis sent me more than ten years ago, together with three other bishops, to be visitators of the Society of Pius X. So I had inside knowledge.
At that time, we wrote a basically positive report to Pope Francis, and I think because of this positive report, he granted the Society of Pius X the faculties for confession for their priests, which are still valid until now, and also faculties to assist at marriages.
Then I read all the documents and the life of Archbishop Lefebvre and his writings, and I am ever more convinced that the work of Archbishop Lefebvre is a great work for the entire Church in history. It will go down in history.
Every community on earth has its own defects and limitations. This is normal, but that is not the main issue. We must look at the essential elements of this Society.
They do nothing but teach and proclaim the same faith as the saints did before the Council, the same faith as the Church has always taught. They did not invent anything new.
When they proclaim the same faith as the saints and as the popes, there is nothing wrong. And they celebrate the same Holy Mass, the liturgy as it was celebrated for centuries.
Pope Pius V, who codified this liturgy, did not invent it or reform it. He simply took the traditional Roman rite from the centuries before Trent and gave it to the entire Latin Church as a model, as a more secure way of celebrating Holy Mass.
So this is what the Society of Pius X is doing. The formation of seminarians follows the norms that the Holy See has given for centuries. They observe not their own norms, but what the Holy See has commanded.
They use the same catechisms as in the past, the Catechism of Pius X and others. Since the Catholic faith did not change before and after the Council, they do the same.
Therefore, from this point of view, we must be grateful to the Society of Pius X for handing on the faith of our forefathers, the faith of the popes, the liturgy of the saints, and the formation of priests and lay people.
The problem is more a juridical or legal one, in that they do not have full recognition from the Holy See. But in this case, the juridical aspect is secondary because of the confusion and emergency situation within the Church.
The Holy See is not fully guaranteeing the integrity of the Catholic faith, and it demands from the Society of Pius X, as a precondition for recognition and permission for consecrations, to accept ambiguous affirmations of the Council and ambiguous ecumenical methods, which relativize the uniqueness of Our Lord.
There is also the idea of collegiality of the episcopacy, which was not present in history as the Second Vatican Council presented it. In practice, the episcopacy is becoming, especially through episcopal conferences, a kind of democratic body, which weakens the diocesan bishop, who is of divine right as successor of the Apostles. Episcopal conferences are not of divine right, a later invention of our time.
These are the main problems between the Holy See and the Society. The Society says it cannot accept what is ambiguous, while the Holy See requires acceptance of the new methods of ecumenism, religious freedom, and certain elements of the new Mass, which are not always clear in practice.
Therefore, I made an appeal to Pope Leo. Please, Holy Father, be a good shepherd, a generous shepherd. These are your children also, half a million Catholics spread around the world in the Society of Pius X, more than 800 priests and seminarians who love you and pray for you daily at Mass, who recognize you as Pope and as bishop.
Why can you not make an exception for them? At the same time, you are so generous with other confessions, receiving the Archbishop of Canterbury for ecumenical encounters, and visiting mosques and other religions.
Why can you not make similar gestures toward your own children and grant them, in an exceptional way, permission to consecrate bishops who will love you and pray for you, and later, you can find a solution with them? It takes time.
So I appeal again, Holy Father. Do not go down in history, dear Pope Leo XIV, as a Pope who accepted or permitted a schism, or new excommunications, or a reopened wound which was not necessary. You could avoid this wound of excommunications and anathema through a generous pastoral gesture.
This is my appeal, and the appeal of many children. Holy Father, be a father, be a son of Augustine, make peace, and let your heart speak, not your entourage, who may influence you and counsel you toward excommunications.
Please do this as a good son of Augustine. Speak from your heart and avoid this wound of separation.
Adrian: Amen.
Bishop Schneider: Thank you.
Adrian: Yes, we are also praying for that, Bishop, that it will happen, because I saw Cardinal Fernandez is preparing for excommunications. If they push through on July 1, I hope the Holy Spirit will work through them. How about Zionism?
Bishop Schneider: Well, Zionism is really a tool that some powerful Jewish organizations worldwide are using. Zionism is used so that Christians can be instrumentalized for their own aims, and I consider this not true and not just.
We must be independent as Christians and pray for the conversion of the Jews to Jesus Christ. This would be true.
Our Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem. Our Zion is the Holy Mother Church. Saint Paul says in Galatians that this is our true Zion. The Jews will recognize the Mother Church as the new Zion.
Adrian: And Bishop, in the increasing global persecution right now, especially of those brothers in some parts of the world, as someone who has lived under persecution, what is your message of hope for them?
Bishop Schneider: My message is that we are supporting our dear persecuted brothers, and we are proud of you. Your sufferings are the seeds of the renewal of the Church. Through your sufferings and persecution, the Lord gives you a crown. We pray for you. You are the most precious members of the Church.
Adrian: Wow, absolutely, Bishop. And what is your prayer for Filipino Catholics who are watching?
Bishop Schneider: My prayer for my beloved Filipinos is that you will always remain faithful. I love your ancient, beautiful Spanish song, which was almost an anthem: No hay más amor que tuyo, Corazón divino, el pueblo filipino te da su corazón.
There is no greater love than the love of the Heart of Jesus, and the Filipino people give their hearts to You, O Jesus. This is the most beautiful thing I have heard, and this is my message to my beloved Filipino Catholic people.
Adrian: Yes, Bishop. And lastly, what would you like our viewers and community to pray for you?
Bishop Schneider: Please pray that God may intervene in the Vatican and in the Holy See, and grant the Holy Father the grace to recognize the true crisis of the Church, to strengthen the Church unambiguously in the faith, and to restore liturgical peace with the traditional liturgy. For this, I ask your prayers.
Adrian: Yes. Thank you, Bishop Athanasius Schneider. My heart is overflowing right now with so much love and joy from this opportunity, this once-in-a-lifetime chance to see you and interview you face-to-face. It feels like heaven for me.
Thank you for all the things you do for the Catholic Church. We love you so much, and please always pray for us, Bishop.
Bishop Schneider: Thank you. You are also a good example of a young man who loves the Catholic faith, engages with it, and spreads it.
Adrian: Yes. Before we end, Bishop, could you give us a short prayer and blessing?
Bishop Schneider: Dominus vobiscum, Et cum spiritu tuo. Benedictio omnipotentis Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti descendat super vos et maneat semper. Amen.
Adrian: Thank you, Bishop, Your Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider. God bless you. Thank you.