Transcript:
Michael: Welcome back to this week’s edition of mic’d up. Joining me now is our executive producer, Matthew Pearson. Matthew and I had the great pleasure of interviewing Bishop Schneider in Rome last month,
Matthew: Just last month. Yes, of course
Michael: The interview that we had up on the site a couple of weeks ago had some tremendous responses to it. And so we decided, let’s come on and visit about this. You do have a little funny background story. We were supposed to be in Rome the day before. He had some problems with the flight. So we came, we had to call Bishop Schneider and say, Your Excellency, we’re going to be landing in Rome at nine in the morning, he had to leave Rome at or you had to leave where we’re going to interview him at one o’clock. So we landed dashingly, the DaVinci bathroom changed clothes real quick after that long flight, and went dashing with 400 boxes and suitcases and everything else poured into the building, got the interview setup. Bishop Schneider walks in, and he said, Hello, Your Excellency is like Michael, nice to see you. I have to be gone at one.
Matthew: Yeah, we’re just under an hour.
Michael: But it was a tremendous interview. He’s so gracious.
Matthew: You know, it was a solid time we had, you know, the stuff he talked about was just, you know, it’s great to hear from a shepherd of the church. Yeah, and you don’t hear it anymore, unfortunately.
Michael: It’s tremendous. Well, we’ve got some little highlights here that we want to talk about. You know, one of the things even as I asked Father Louis, in the earlier segment, we’re talking about, you know, the devil in hell and all of this, this silly attitude that, you know, everybody goes to heaven is it’s like, hell doesn’t even exist. Or if it does, you don’t have to worry about it at all. It’s just something in a book.
Matthew: And people are the other. The other side of this coin is that people are afraid. They’re afraid that if they accept the reality of hell, they won’t be able to live, you know, righteously. And it’s really, it’s a blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. They’re not trusting in God’s grace. That’s really what it comes down to. They don’t have faith, really, in God’s grace. So they say, Oh, if this hell thing is real, if we have to fully accept that, you know, most people are damned, and that there’s a good chance I’ll be damned, the default of humanity is damnation. If you accept that, yeah, there’s a fear there. But the hope is in the crucifixion, which people don’t really believe. And I think, unfortunately, I mean, that’s really what I get from this whole confusion that’s raining, which is what the clip is about. Sure.
Michael: Well, let’s go ahead and roll the clip. We’ll take those as I asked Bishop Schneider, what about all this business about, you know, everybody really going to heaven.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: And so it is a joke with the eternal destiny of a human soul. And when a clergy is speaking in such a manner that all don’t bother, don’t be afraid, you will all go to heaven. This is very irresponsible. I even consider it a great sin against the love of neighbor.
Michael: You know, it was very, for him to use that word irresponsible. You and I both commented on that. It really nails it, doesn’t.
Matthew: It’s just like letting your children play in traffic or something. I mean, it’s that level of irresponsibility. I mean, you find a kid, you go to a sporting event or something, a carnival, and you find a kid away from his parents. Okay, mistakes happen. But every person who’s found a child right around your immediate, like, what’s wrong with this parent? How do you lose your child? How are you so irresponsible, to not give proper guidance, to not give, to not care enough to nurture and protect, and all these things? And what’s going on in the clergy when it comes to just basic spiritual matters? It’s really sad. I mean, there are times when parents say things to kids, and they’re gonna not like you for a little while, but it’s for their own good. Our pastors, our priests, need to do the exact same thing. And if they’re not, it’s irresponsible, 100%.
Michael: One of the areas that I don’t think is a great shock is that your viewers understand. We get all kinds of information pouring in here, daily, from people all over the world. And one of the things that we hear continually is the problem of homosexuality in the clergy. And many of the clergy’s response seems very tepid, and very lukewarm to a culture, just embracing running after and running over the cliff of this whole same sex marriage and all the homosexuality, and so we asked Bishop Schneider about that, and I think, like the way he, you can sense that kind of holy man disgust.
Matthew: And his observations are really keen on what he says right at the beginning of the clip, which we’ll play in a second. But he brings to light how disordered the communication between the bishops and the priests to the people in sin, how manipulated it is, how nuanced it is; it’s just, if there’s one thing the church has always been, it’s clear. Whereas it has to be mean, we’re saying, we’re the only voice of truth on the entire planet, and use it, we’re going to speak clearly. And that’s really gone off the rails last, a few decades here, but in the magisterium of the church, in canon law, these things are laid out very clearly in the places where human error is not manipulating. The church is clear, and always has been.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: And so, of course, we have not to speak every day about this topic. Of course, we have to be prudent and with common sense. When it’s necessary, we speak about this topic very clearly, of course, with the utmost politeness, but we have to speak clearly. I have the impression every time the topic of homosexuality is presented, bishops often, before they start to speak, excuse themselves, back out, they apologize. Please, excuse me, we have with the first state, and this we have a deep veneration and respect for these persons. Well, it is clear that we have to have respect, but deep respect; we have to not exaggerate this.
Michael: And you have this thing again, we did a vortex episode on this recently, where there’s this, like, over the top, you can’t offend the same sex attraction thing. And we said, well, what about all these other people that need help and attention in the church? I mean, how many single moms are there?
Matthew: We just talked about this yesterday.
Michael: I mean, why is there always this? Oh, we must worship at the altar exactly. When Bishop Schneider picks up on and he’s like, Why does it have to be a deep respect? What about all the other people who have problems?
Matthew: Yes, it’s what I said before. It’s a keen insight that he’s picking up on that. The language is always so massaged, it doesn’t come out clearly. These people need clear, clear truth. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with saying what you do is wrong, which he talks about later. And in that clip, he says, what I’m offended by, it’s against reason. It’s against nature. It’s against the will of God. What do you want? Like, what do you want from me?
What do you want me to tell you if anything’s offended here? It’s the truth. I mean, and he’s, and then later again, in that particular segment, he gets into, or like what he said in the first segment, this is a love of neighbor we’re doing here. Sure. You know, the people who really don’t care about homosexuals are the ones who just want them to keep being homosexual, right? Those people don’t give a damn about any of it. They don’t get it, they don’t care that these people are going to be damned if they don’t turn from their lifestyle. I mean, so for there to be a comparison that we’re offending is, it’s a satanic manipulation, as we learned, and the entire show here is how easily it’s manipulated. You’ve got to look out for it, you’ve got to be clear.
Michael: Sure, there is a devil, there is a hell of people go there, the Queen of Heaven has told us that the King of Heaven has told us that we see it manifest in all sorts of spiritual warfare, and there’s just there’s no way around this. But we’re running out of time. I just wanna get to this last section. He had some brilliant observations on the crisis in the church. So let’s let him talk since he says it better than you are right, let’s go ahead and play that clip.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Well, and is today, almost the general crisis of relativism reigning inside the Church through doctrinal, moral, and tremendous liturgical anarchy. This is a very grievous crisis for me. So, every crisis gets solutions, and since his instruments often start with little, simple, and hidden realities in the church. So time after time, God renews His Church, and so also in our time. I can observe in so many parts of the world, this beginning of the renewal of the Church, slowly, but very clearly, this is the Holy Spirit. And nobody can hinder the Holy Spirit from making this, not even a Cardinal or a Bishop. The Holy Spirit is using the little one in the church to renew these, and so I hope that we will proceed with patience and with much faith in this work of the renewal of the Church, of Our Holy Mother Church.
Michael: It’s a tremendous charge of hope from Bishop Schneider. And he’s right, you and I know that traveling is one of the reasons Matt’s here right now, as we travel around all over the place. And yes, there’s a deep crisis, no doubt about it. But there are these signs of hope, all these different folks we talked to, we visit, either stay at their houses or are hosted by them on various talks and whatever. And I think it would just be interesting to hear, you’re a younger guy, you’ve grown up, and you’ve never known the church outside of the crisis. I haven’t really either. But you grew up in the midst of a crisis here.
Matthew: Well, I think when it comes to age, I think there’s definitely that. I mean, there’s that reality that I don’t know what it’s like to grow up in a culture where families weren’t broken as just a regular phenomenon. I mean, the world I grew up in, there’s divorce, there’s pornography, there’s boys, kids out of control when they’re in high school. I mean, it is what it is right now. But the other thing that age can’t restrict you on is that we’re kind of we’re graced enough to be in a time of the church where we can reflect back on a lot of the history of the church, 2000 years of history. And the church has been through multiple crises, as that segment Bishop Schneider refers to. And you can see back the way what caused the crises, sorry, but homosexuality caused quite a few crises. I mean, it’s just the reality of the situation. It’s a debaucherous act against nature. So don’t think we’re just harping on that, just like we have nothing better to talk about. It’s a big deal. And we know that from history,
Michael: It wreaked havoc on the Catholic clergy.
Matthew: Yes, absolutely. And it’s not just in this generation, it’s been another point of the church. But no matter what the crisis, the Aryan crisis, all of these different issues that have happened in the church, we can take some solace in knowing that the church has made it through that, like he’s points to the Holy Spirit continues to work through the little points in the church and rises up new leaders, a new crop, new fruit will always grow our Lord is infinite. So the fruit he bears will continue. So, yeah, it’s a very powerful interview, and he ends on such a solid note, you know, where we are in the restoration period of the church. So let’s continue. Thanks be to God.
Michael: Bishop Sheen used to say that our studios were named after him, that he would be and he wanted to be alive during this time, because he was living in it, and died during the crisis. We’re here in this part of the you get to fight back. Now we have the wonderful technology at our disposal, and everything else is until the government takes it away. So yeah, another show. But real quick recap for us, you can watch the show. If you’re right now, you can watch that interview as if you’re in the show.
Matthew: Yeah, the show is available for Premium Members, Church melta.com premium members, or if you don’t have a subscription. At this time, you can download the free podcast. Or if you want to wait till next month, in August, we’re going to release the full video interview. But yes, for those who you know can afford it and you know, can sacrifice a movie ticket once a month for $10 a month for a premium membership. You know, you’re helping us help you, you’re helping us restore the Church, and it’s a beautiful thing. Everyone wins.
Michael: Well said on our show on our show spirituality. This is all part of it. Who would have thought that? What would St. Paul have done if he had all of this? This whole warehouse is full of toys?
All right, Matthew, thank you very much for joining us here in our prayer. We always wrap up, of course, with a prayer to St. Michael from our sister organization, St. Michael’s Media. He is the man to whom the angel to whom this apostolate has been raised in his honor. So please, we always finish with a prayer to Him. Please join us,
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
St. Michael, the archangel, defends us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, Prince of the heavenly host by the power of God, cast into hell, Satan, and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Sacred Heart of Jesus. Have Mercy on us!
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pray for us!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Thank you once again for joining us, everybody. We will see you again next week here on Mic’d Up. Be sure and make churchmountain.com your homepage. God loves you!