Jim Havens: Also, say later in the book that right now we are experiencing the widespread apostasy of bishops and cardinals. Tell us more about what you’re seeing.
Bishop Schneider: It is simply that we could state these facts. It has been evident in the decades since the council that the majority of episcopal nominations made by the Holy See and by their nuncios promoted priests who were not zealous in defending and promoting the integrity of the Catholic faith, but were so-called compromise candidates. Compromise candidates are neither cold nor hot. They are in the middle, and such people will always yield to the attacks of this world and compromise the Catholic faith and liturgy.
We could observe this in those dioceses over the last 50 or 60 years. Even though these candidates were not explicit heretics or immoral people, they were always compromising, yielding, or ambiguous. This is not the standard of an apostolic man like the apostles, the church fathers, or the great bishops in history. Yet this has been the characteristic of candidates for the episcopacy, and even more so for cardinals. Unfortunately, the Holy See promoted such candidates very much. We have to state this. We cannot remain silent, and this is ultimately the responsibility of the Holy See.
In the time of Pope Gregory VI, Gregory the Great, at the end of the sixth century, he was very demanding in appointing bishops. He conducted careful research and sometimes waited a long time before making appointments, or he simply did not appoint anyone because he did not find a good candidate. He was very careful. Some bishops rebuked him, asking why he was so demanding and exacting. He stressed that it is so important to find good candidates. He told them, “Please go and seek, and you will find them, but good candidates are sometimes hidden, so you have to search or simply wait.”
A diocese can remain vacant for a considerable time, and the faithful will continue to believe and receive the sacraments. For example, during the Soviet era, we lived for decades without a bishop and very few priests, yet the Catholic faith was still transmitted, taught, and lived in Catholic families. It is better to leave a diocese without a bishop for some years than to appoint a weak, compromise candidate who will be ambiguous and allow the spread of modernism and liberalism in the diocese.