Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Yes, it would be the biggest mistake to leave the Church because the Church is our mother. How can you leave your mother? The Church gave us supernatural life. The pope did not give us supernatural life, nor the bishop, but the Holy Mother, the Church. We have to say to the people, the Church is greater than the pope, the bishop, or the cardinals. They are only members of the Church, also. The Church is greater, and therefore, we have to love our Mother Church even more in this time of her passion.
We have to say to people, our Mother Church is now enduring Holy Friday because the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. By divine permission, God allowed the Church, over the past fifty or sixty years, to enter a time resembling the way of the cross, the Stations of the Cross. I think now, in our current time, we have arrived at Calvary, Golgotha. Our Mother Church is humiliated, as Jesus Christ was, in chains, as Jesus was tied. Today, those who humiliate our Mother Church are not so much the enemies of the Church, but, incredibly, mostly the clergy, even high clergy in the Church.
This is a mystery in some way, like Judas, whom God also permitted. We have to be with our Mother Church and say, We will be with you in this time of Calvary, and be faithful to our Mother Church in keeping the immutable faith. It makes no sense to leave the Church if they have the faith. These people, why have they left the Church? They know the Catechism. They know the saints. They can receive Holy Communion, even if they must travel a distance to have a worthy Holy Mass. Many Christians did this in times of persecution and continue to do so. They have the faith, the Catechism, and the sacraments. What more do they need?
The mistake is to identify a concrete holder of an ecclesiastical office, even the pope or a bishop, and identify him completely with the Church. This is the error we must abandon. This very narrow vision of the Church is wrong. The Church is larger and greater. We have to encourage the faithful and help our Mother Church remain. Of course, we have the right to resist heresy, even in a bishop or the pope, if done respectfully, not like people with no faith or those fighting secularly or politically. We are members of the Mystical Body of Christ, and the Church is ultimately a supernatural reality, not only an organization.
We must use other means, not the means of parties or political fights, and this is fidelity to the Church, to the teaching of the Church, and to prayer. We must also say to the faithful, please make reparation for the infidelity and apostasy of, unfortunately, not so few shepherds of the Church in our day.