Jim Havens: It is great to be back with you on The Simple Truth, where we proclaim the life-giving reality of Jesus and his Catholic Church. We consecrate everything to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the pure, strong heart of St Joseph. It is Current Events Wednesday, and our guest today is Bishop Athanasius Schneider. He is one of the foremost defenders of the Catholic faith in our time. He serves as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan. He is chairman of the Liturgical Commission, as well as Secretary General of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Kazakhstan. He is also a prolific author, and we’ll be talking about his very important new book today, The Catholic Mass, Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy. It is published by Sophia Institute Press, sophia-institute.com. His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, thank you for being with us today. How are you?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Thank you.
Jim Havens: All right, it’s great to have you with us. Bishop, would you mind leading us in an opening prayer?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Yes. In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Pater Noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum, fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris, et ne nos inducas in tentationem. Sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
Glória Patri et Fílio et Spíritui Sancto, sicut erat in princípio et nunc et semper et in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
In nómine Patris et Fílii et Spíritus Sancti. Amen.
Jim Havens: Amen. All right. Thank you, Bishop. This is an outstanding book in many ways, The Catholic Mass, which we are going to be talking about today. We have much to get to, but first it is important that we always begin on this current events Wednesday show by remembering the biggest current event of all and the number one news story that ought to be reported on by all the networks but goes unreported today and every day, and that is the ongoing daily government sanctioned, government funded, government protected mass murder of innocent children in the wombs of their mothers, real people being murdered by the thousands today and every day in our nation. This also means the mass exploitation of pregnant moms in need for profit by the lie of abortion. In terms of loss of human life, we have at least one 911 call every day in the US.
Imagine three thousand of any other category of persons being murdered in a given day in our nation, and it going unreported by the media and even mostly ignored by the churches. Then imagine if that were happening every day, and you begin to understand something of the insane reality in which we find ourselves. According to a July 2020 article in the prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet, we have a global death toll from abortion of seventy-three point three million children annually, which is more than two hundred thousand preborn children being murdered worldwide every day.
It is essential that we put great effort into breaking through our own desensitization to this massive evil. We have to face reality on this. We must live, proclaim, and push forward the vision that every innocent human being, without exception, has a right to life. Even an atheist ought to have the basic moral sense to see the evil of killing an innocent child. For those who believe in Jesus and his Catholic Church, we have the additional benefit of crystal clear, authoritative magisterial teaching on this, which gives us absolutely no place to hide in treating those in the womb as any less valuable than us.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2270: “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception, meaning fertilization. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person, among which is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life.” End of quote.
Also, if you have experienced abortion in some way as a mother, father, sibling, grandparent, or otherwise, there are great people and great resources available to help you in your healing process. We love you. You are not alone. Go to lovewillendchildkilling.com and click on the healing tab for more information.
Your Excellency, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, thank you for your patience during that introduction. I want to connect it with your new book, The Catholic Mass. As we begin, you write, “The liturgical reform has favored a certain liturgical relativism, which has also led to a doctrinal relativism.” You also quote Cardinal Viterbo during the inaugural oration of the Fifth Lateran Council in 1512, “Men must be changed by sacred things and not sacred things by men.” End of quote.
Do you see a connection between the liturgical permissiveness of bishops and the lack of defense of the sacred in the Holy Mass over the past fifty years that has led to the widespread loss of faith, and the moral permissiveness of bishops and the lack of defense of the sacredness of human life that has led to the greatest manifestation of evil in our time, perhaps even of all time, in the ongoing daily mass murder of the preborn, truly the least of the least of these, by abortion?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Yes, there is a connection between the faith, the clarity of faith, the Holy worship, the liturgy, and our moral life. In Latin, it is called lex credendi, the law of faith, of believing, then lex orandi, the law of prayer, the liturgy, and lex vivendi, the law of life, how we live. All three are connected, and therefore, when in liturgy we introduce the principle of relativism, and relativism ultimately means anthropocentrism, because anthropocentrism says that human beings decide and state what is true, it is reflected also in the manner of celebrating worship, when there is this style of worship where the celebrant and the community are centered upon themselves, a community-centered, anthropocentric manner of worship.
This, over time, influences the mode of thinking, so that even regarding the truth, it will be man-centered. We have experienced this in the last decades since the liturgical reform, so-called, in so many churches around the world. Not only is there relativism in worship, but there are also many differences; in almost every parish, one can discover another style, another manner of celebrating, depending on the celebrant and the community.
This relativism in liturgy is not comparable with the same tradition from the ancient Church, where there was a richness of different liturgical forms or rites, because the richness of the liturgical rites had one thing in common: the faithful observance of all liturgical norms, the strictly theocentric, Christocentric manner of liturgy, the sublimity and sacredness of every detail. These laws are common to all traditional rites which the Catholic Church has possessed since the first centuries, and they are still historically valid liturgical rites, especially the Oriental rites. There are many, for example, the Byzantine rite, the Romanian, the Coptic, the Ethiopic, the Syrian, and other rites. They all have in common these elements and rules.
This is the difference from the current new liturgical reform, the new rite in the Latin Church, where these rules of faithful observance of norms, of being God-centered during prayer, the sacredness and sublimity of all the rites, even in the details, are very much lacking. This leads to relativism and anthropocentrism.
Jim Havens: Yes, very good. As we get going into this interview, we’re going to break all of this open for folks. We certainly won’t be able to get to everything that is in the book, but we do have Bishop Athanasius Schneider here with us today to discuss his new book, The Catholic Mass, Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy. We’re about to hit a short break in just a moment, but when we come back, we will talk with Bishop Schneider about the Protestantization of the Eucharistic rite. We will also get into some of the history to understand why we are where we are, but also to understand the clues of how to correct where we are, to reach where God is drawing us to be.
I want to say a word about this book to folks. You can get it at sophiainstitute.com. Published by Sophia Institute Press, I highly, highly, highly recommend this book. It will help you understand the Catholic Mass more deeply and the richness that we have in the Mass. It goes through so many aspects of the Mass. It is tremendously beautiful, refreshing, and helps to orient us to where we are and where we need to go. I want to emphasize the centrality of the Sacrifice of the Mass. If we can grasp that, we can enter into that sacrifice all the more, and then go out to our brothers and sisters in the world who need us the most. We’ll be right back. Stay tuned.
Welcome back to The Simple Truth. Jim Havens here with our guest today, Bishop Athanasius Schneider. We are talking about his new book, The Catholic Mass, Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy, published by Sophia Institute Press. You can get it at sophiainstitute.com.
Bishop Schneider, you characterize much that has gone wrong in terms of liturgical errors and abuses as a Protestantization of the Eucharistic rite. You explain, quote, “The Church has a 2,000-year history, and the Novus Ordo has been with us only for about 50 years. Usually, the crises in the Church have lasted about 70 years, similar to the Babylonian exile in the Old Testament, or the exile of Avignon in 14th-century France. Today, we are going through a period of liturgical exile,” end quote. How did we get here? This is a big question, but briefly, in your view, what happened to bring us into this crisis, this period of liturgical exile?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: I think we have to go back to the roots. This is the modern crisis of the Church, which started even before the council, with the infiltration of modernism, the so-called modernism, which is substantially doctrinal relativism. It establishes the principle that every time can change the meaning of truth, and so there is no everlasting, unchanging truth. This is one of the principles of modernism, and it was also influenced partly by the liturgical reform after the council. This anthropocentric tendency, the man-centered form of worship, was also much closer to the Protestant understanding of the Eucharist.
Concretely, the liturgical reform, both in the texts and the exterior form of celebrating, especially the man-centered celebration, like a closed circle with the priest continuously looking at the people, like a lecture or simple assembly, over time, undermines the substantial truth of the Eucharist, the Holy Mass, which is the sacrifice of the cross. The Holy Mass, since the apostles, has been delivered and handed down by the Church over 2,000 years as the sacramental form of the sacrifice of Golgotha, the redeeming sacrifice of Christ. It is really present on our altars, the sacrifice of the cross in an unbloody way, but the substance remains the same. This is the greatest work in all of history, in the entire universe. The sacrifice on the cross is the greatest expression of God’s love for us and the greatest expression of divine worship and adoration, which Christ, in His humanity, gave in the name of all humanity, of all creation, to the Most Holy Trinity. It is also the greatest expression of thanksgiving, propitiation, atonement, and petition. These realities are the substance of the Holy Mass. This is its essence, and it must be stressed in the form we celebrate, even externally in the text and in the manner of celebration. The Church did this for 2,000 years.
In all liturgical rites, even the Eastern rites, since the apostles, the priest and the faithful were turned together in the same direction, to the cross of the Lord, to the altar, to express that we are standing on the fruit of the cross of the Lord, spiritually, and in a sacramental way as well. From this flows the fruit of the sacrifice, Holy Communion, the aspect of the banquet. This is a subordinated aspect of the Holy Mass; it is an integral part, of course, but it flows from the sacrifice. The problem with the Novus Ordo, the new Mass, is that this secondary aspect was put at the center. It was really reversed. This is contrary to the divine meaning of the Holy Eucharist, which Christ instituted as His sacramental sacrifice. We have to restore the centrality of the sacrifice, which shows very clearly that God is at the center. We receive these fruits from Him. A meal and community-centered form is anthropocentric; it focuses on what we are doing and sharing, and this does not correspond to the continuous, unchanging tradition of the Church.
Therefore, it is necessary again to turn to the Lord in all churches during the Holy Mass, and over time, also change some texts in the Novus Ordo that weaken the sacrificial character. For example, the offertory prayers that the priest prays in the Novus Ordo do not express the central meaning of the Mass, which is the sacrificial offering of the body and blood of Christ, the immaculate victim. Instead, the offertory prayers focus on the meal, the body of Christ as something we receive, which is very deficient and dangerous. We have to change this. The Church will change this. I am convinced that the old, proven offertory prayers, which are so deep and express the sacrifice of the cross, should be reintroduced. We hope that the Holy Spirit will guide the Church.
Now we already see signs that the young generations, seminarians, young priests, young families, instinctively feel the faith and perceive the beauty of the Catholic truth, understanding the necessary aspects of sacrifice, adoration, silence, and sacredness in the Holy Mass.
Jim Havens: Yes, Bishop Athanasius Schneider is with us. We’re talking about his new book, The Catholic Mass Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy. Just as you speak so eloquently on this topic, you write about it very eloquently in the book, very beautifully. One of the thoughts that continues to come to me as I read it, as I listen to you, is that I think regular folks like myself, my family, and others that I know, as we come to understand the objective truth, the objective beauty of what the Holy Mass is, then we long to adore our Lord, rightly, to worship Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We long for a sense of reverence, of awe and wonder in response to the great beauty and objective truth that is before us, which is the greatest treasure we could ever imagine here on Earth, leading us all the way into the eternal kingdom. This is really what’s behind so many people moving to look for more reverence wherever they can find it, maybe a reverent Novus Ordo somewhere that has implemented more reverent practices, or going to the traditional Latin Mass. There is a hunger in man for adoring our Lord, rightly, isn’t there?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Of course, and this is a demonstration of the truth that the Christian soul, the Catholic soul, is longing for the objective truth, and the truth is always beauty. The beauty attracts us, and we have one word in the Gospel, our Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman, “If you knew the gift of God.” We have to say the same to the people, to the Catholics who come to assist at Holy Mass on Sundays, especially those who are in the so-called Novus Ordo masses in churches, “If you knew the unspeakable gift of the Holy Mass,” which is first the sacrifice of the Cross, which is also the heavenly sacrifice, which is now Christ performing in heaven as our High Priest, offering to the Father the same sacrifice of the Cross, which glorifies his wounds. It is the same. The Holy Mass is also at the same time the open heaven, where Christ, as our High Priest, continues to intercede for us, showing his Father his living wounds of the Cross, the lamp in heaven, and surrounded by the entire community of saints and angels. This is really the reality of Holy Mass. If you knew this reality, what it is, you would kneel down. You would have the desire to be silent, to contemplate, and to be aware of this reality. This is Golgotha and the open heaven. Therefore, the Church accumulated this form of celebrating Mass, these truths, over all the centuries and millennia. The saints whom we know grew up in this form of the Holy Mass. Of course, it is always a task for us. Even the most beautiful Mass, I mean, reverent and sacred, the traditional Mass will not help you when you are not prepared internally to participate, when you are not recollected. It is always a duty for us and for the priest, even in the most beautiful traditional Mass, to prepare ourselves to be conscious, aware, with faith, participating with love, with repentance, and with gratitude.
Jim Havens: Yeah, so many important distinctions here with Bishop Athanasius Schneider. If you like what he’s saying, you’re going to love his book, The Catholic Mass Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy. It is incredible, and it is much needed at this time. He writes, “Surely divine providence will intervene and give us a hierarchy that will know how to repair the liturgy. According to the sensus perennis, the perennial sense of the Church’s tradition, the new rite will then be brought back more and more to the traditional liturgical form of the Church, and come close to the traditional form of the Mass. There will not be a mixture, but the two forms will be very similar.” We’re going to get back to this in just a moment. Stay tuned.
Welcome back to The Simple Truth. Jim Havens here with our guest today, Bishop Athanasius Schneider. We are talking about the Catholic Mass’s new book, Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy, published by Sophia Institute Press. Get it at sophia-institute.com. You write in the book that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the true sun of the world, the spiritual lightning rod of the world, the spiritual center of the world. The Catholic Mass is irrepressible. The many external persecutions over 2,000 years have not been able to destroy it, and even the persecutions within the life of the Church today have not been able to destroy that most ancient form, the constant form, the surest and most expressively sacrificial liturgical form of the Holy Mass.
Then you go on later in the book to say it is necessary to reintroduce into the Novus Ordo celebration of the Holy Mass many signs and gestures that were abolished, since they helped the celebrant and faithful to preserve a living and supernatural awareness that the Holy Mass is a sacred action par excellence. Thus, the Eucharistic celebration will be lived in the spirit of adoration and love, in spirit and truth, as God demands, pointing to John 4:24. There is just incredible, incredible stuff here. I think this book will give great hope to many who can see what is going on currently and are looking for a way out. How is this? How can this go in a better direction? What’s going to happen here? I think you lay out a very good blueprint in this book of what we ought to be thinking about and what we ought to be moving towards. Can you explain more about some of the gestures and signs, some of the aspects that need to be changed and reintroduced to the Novus Ordo to make it what it ought to be?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: First, I would say that our current Novus Ordo is not the Mass of Vatican Two. It is not correct, because you cannot find in the council text on liturgy the typical Novus Ordo elements. Let us say, first, it is celebrating with the people, like in a closed circle. There is nothing in Vatican Council II about this. On the contrary, the text of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the liturgical constitution of the council, says the opposite. The liturgy has to be in such a way that the human is subordinated to the Divine and oriented to it, that the action is subordinated to the contemplation and oriented to it, that earthly realities are subordinated to the heavenly. This is how the liturgy must be, says the council text. Our earthly liturgy has to be so that we are always aware, says another text of the same document, that we are participating in the heavenly liturgy. So you see, this is Vatican Two.
Vatican Two said that in all Catholic Masses it is obligatory that the bishop guarantee that all the faithful know how to sing and pray at least the ordinary texts of the Mass in Latin, like the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and so on. It is our obligation from the council, but it was completely disregarded by the bishops until now. There are, as I repeat, some myths about Vatican Two. In the name of the council, some ruptures and Protestantizing elements were introduced that cannot be justified by the council text. We have to know that there is no word in the council text that we must give Holy Communion in the hand. There is no word in the council text, even implicitly, that women should read the readings, serve at the altar, or that lay people should give Holy Communion. It is completely alien. There is no text. It was only introduced after the council by a revolutionary committee in the Vatican, unfortunately, or it was already introduced in disobedience in some local churches, especially in the Netherlands and Germany. This is the reality.
We also have to bear in mind the fact, which is often forgotten, that the so-called Vatican Two Mass was the Mass of 1965. In January 1965, the Pope published a new reformed order of the Mass, which was the Vatican Two Mass. The reformed new Mass was very close and similar to the traditional Mass. There was no obligation to celebrate with the people. In this 1965 Mass, it remained the same traditional Mass, with only two exceptions: at the beginning, Psalm 42 was dropped, but this was not a complete novelty, because during Lent in the last two weeks in the traditional form, Psalm 42 was also omitted, and it was also omitted in all Requiem Masses. The other change was that the Last Gospel of John was also dropped. So these were the only two elements that differed from the old Mass, but they were not radical. The main difference was only the use of the vernacular language. In the first part of the Mass, it was allowed and promoted in the vernacular, but from the Preface to the Our Father, it was still obligatory in the 1965 Mass to use the Latin language, and the Eucharistic Prayer, the Roman Canon, remained in Latin and in silence. This was the Vatican Two Mass. When the last session of the Council ended in fall 1965, the council fathers celebrated this reformed Mass and agreed that it corresponded to their proposals. Only after the council was there a revolution, the so-called new order Mass, which included these Protestantizing elements.
I think the following elements are indispensable to return to the Mass in the spirit of all ages. First, the priest should be turned with the people to the crucifix, or to the altar, in the same direction in all prayers, especially during the offertory and the Canon of the Mass. This is indispensable. Second, we have to reintroduce, again in all churches, Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue, because Communion in the hand is the deepest wound in the Church. Through Communion in the hand, there is a mass desecration of the holy hosts. Small pieces and fragments of the host fall onto the fingers or the palms, then fall to the ground and are trampled by feet. Our Lord, in His divine majesty, with His body and blood in these little pieces of the holy host, is trampled in so many churches. We cannot continue this. This is the deepest wound in the Church and must stop immediately. Communion in the hand is the deepest violation.
Another necessary element is giving silence during the Canon. The priest should pray in silence or at least in a lower voice so that the people can have a moment of silence and prayer. This holy moment, when our Lord is present with His sacrifice on the altar, and the reality of Golgotha is present, should be surrounded by an atmosphere of silence and prayer. At the altar in the sanctuary, women should not be present. This is contrary to St. Paul’s teaching, contrary to all the Fathers of the Church, and contrary to the entire tradition of the Church. Only men invested with liturgical vestments should read and serve at the altar, showing the sacrality and sublime character of the Holy Mass. Finally, another element is to introduce more Latin in the Novus Ordo, at least in the central parts. This would unite all Catholics in the world and express the mystery of God and the sacrifice of the Cross through the sacred language, which the Church has preserved throughout the ages.
Jim Havens: Bishop Athanasius Schneider is with us, talking about the Catholic Mass Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy. It’s his new book, published by Sophia Institute Press. You can get it at sophia-institute.com. Bishop, I want to thank you for your clarity in proclaiming the truth. It really is authentic charity that you do so, and I, for one, along with many others, greatly appreciate it and greatly benefit from it. Thank you so much. In some of those changes that you’re talking about, are those things that a regular pastor in a diocese could start implementing, or is that something that really requires the bishop to lead the way in a given diocese?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: I think that some of these things parish priests could do because it is not forbidden to use Latin, and so the bishop cannot forbid it. On the contrary, the priest would obey, in this case, the council text, which is obligatory to use Latin. There is also a document of the Holy See from 2000, which states that in the Novus Ordo, the celebration facing the people is not obligatory, so the priest can use these texts, at least to use Latin more. Because, of course, today communion in the hand is introduced in almost all countries, the priest probably will not have his own authority to refuse communion in the hand, unfortunately, and also to celebrate facing the Lord. He could do this because it is possible, but in practice, I think that the bishops usually intervene and impose some rules. Unfortunately, we have to pray that God will give us bishops who, by themselves, introduce in the cathedrals the celebration facing the Lord, and who in their dioceses forbid communion in the hand. We need such bishops ever more, but it would be better if a pope did this from Rome, and then the bishops would obey. We have to implore that the authentic liturgical renewal will come from Rome.
Jim Havens: Yes, we will keep praying. Absolutely. And I do want to read this quote as we head into the break from the Catholic Mass by Bishop Athanasius Schneider. Here’s the quote: The revival of receiving the Body of the Lord kneeling and on the tongue as a universal practice would be a visible and impressive testimony of the Church’s faith today. It could also help to heal and educate modern culture, to which kneeling and spiritual childhood are completely foreign concepts. For a culture that has distanced itself from the faith and no longer knows the one before whom it must kneel, we’ll be right back. Stay tuned.
Welcome back to The Simple Truth. Jim Havens here with our guest today, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, and his new book is what we’re talking about: The Catholic Mass, Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy. It’s published by Sophia Institute Press. Get it at SophiaInstitute.com, SophiaInstitute.com. It truly is a phenomenal book. I couldn’t recommend it more highly. Again, called The Catholic Mass.. SophiaInstitute.com.
Bishop, I want to ask you this in terms of what the laity can do. Certainly we can all do our best to educate ourselves, to form ourselves better in understanding the objective truth of what the Holy Mass is, what the Sacrifice of the Mass is, what Holy Communion is, and to prepare our souls in the right disposition to come before our Lord in the Sacrifice of the Mass, to receive Holy Communion, and to bring forth the fruits that He wants to bring forth in us and through us that will remain for all eternity. This book will help us to form ourselves in that way.
But one of the practices that I want to ask you about is the practice of kneeling, receiving our Lord on the tongue in the Holy Eucharist. Is that something that the laity can simply choose to do on their own, even within the Novus Ordo? You write here that for a member of the faithful to continue to receive Communion kneeling and on the tongue in the circumstances we are in today requires great spiritual maturity and uncommon courage, often because freedom to choose is drastically reduced, as evidenced by the many testimonies of individual believers.
I think of two different stories I’ve heard where a layperson kneels to receive on the tongue within the Novus Ordo, and the priest denies them and withholds the Eucharist from them. They really have no right to do that, correct? It is the laity’s right to receive kneeling and on the tongue, isn’t that right?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Of course, there is a Church law in the document Redemptionis Sacramentum. It’s a document issued by Pope John Paul II in 2004, where he stated that every Catholic has the right to receive Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue, and it would be a great abuse if a priest denied this. Communion in the hand and standing is still an exception to the rule. Indulgent means exception from the rule. According to Church law, receiving Communion kneeling and on the tongue is the rule, and in the hand and standing is the exception. Therefore, the priest has no right to deny this, and you must ask him, with humility and respect but with insistence, to observe your rights, which the Church gives you. Even no bishop can deny you. Unfortunately, some bishops also do this, which is an abuse of power.
Please continue to be a witness of our Eucharistic Lord, my dear brothers and sisters, laypeople. You have this possibility to advance the true, authentic renewal and springtime of the Church. The Lord is choosing you today. Be confessors of Jesus Christ at the moment of receiving Holy Communion. Do not be afraid. Kneel down. Confess our Lord, even before the priest or the bishop, and the Lord will confess you before the angels and His Father in heaven. Do not be afraid. Kneel down with humility. When you are denied, go to other churches where you can receive. It is worthwhile to be a confessor of the Eucharistic Lord.
Be lovers of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and participate in Eucharistic Adoration. Please participate in churches where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, in Perpetual Adoration, or nocturnal Adoration if possible. Be a defender of the Eucharist and offer atonement. In all the places where Communion in the hand is given, some small fragments of the consecrated host may be lost. Go there, kneel down, kiss the floor, and offer a prayer of reparation, perhaps the prayer of the Angel of Fatima, and offer this as reparation to the Lord.
Let us be a new crusade, a Eucharistic crusade, all over the world: laypeople receiving, kneeling, and on the tongue, consoling Our Lord, atoning for Him, and defending Him.
Jim Havens: Yes, if we want a real Eucharistic revival, I highly encourage everybody to get this book, read it, and hand it on to others: The Catholic Mass, Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy. Again, SophiaInstitute.com.
Bishop, I want to ask you real quickly here. You write that today’s practice of Communion in the hand has been legitimized almost as a kind of forced extortion after an abuse. You say this because Communion in the hand was first introduced abusively at a time when it was altogether forbidden, and then bishops who had tolerated or approved of the abuse put pressure on Paul VI to legitimize it. Can you just speak to this, the fact that this whole thing comes out of an act of disobedience?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Of course, this is proven. This is a fact. It started in the Netherlands, even during the council. Disobedience is an abuse. The Holy See admonished the bishops in the Netherlands to prohibit Communion, but they did not obey. It then spread like an epidemic, quickly reaching Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Austria, unfortunately, during the last years of the council.
Pope Paul VI tried to stop it and made a general inquiry of every bishop in the world with complete questions about whether this practice should be introduced, if it would be dangerous for the faith, for the sacrality of the Eucharist, and regarding the dangers of abuse. The majority of the world episcopate rejected Communion in the hand, citing these dangers, in 1968. Nevertheless, unfortunately, Pope Paul VI yielded to the pressure of these conferences of bishops in Central Europe and allowed it. This was very tragic and had fatal consequences. This was a great error of Paul VI. He delivered Our Lord to the hands of others, even though he stated that Communion on the tongue is the rule and should be continued. But this was not realistic. How can you introduce the wolf into the stable of the sheep and say, Please do not harm the sheep? This is irresponsible. You can see the consequences of this desecration, and nevertheless, he allowed it.
Afterward, the Holy See, until John Paul II, continuously allowed one conference after another to continue this practice. We have to confess this is very tragic. We must return to defending Our Lord in the Eucharist, stop this form of objective desecration, and the entire Church must kneel down to adore Him, to love Him, and to defend Our Lord in the Eucharist.
Jim Havens: Get the book The Catholic Mass, Sophia Institute. Your Excellency, would you mind closing us out with a final blessing?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Dominus vobiscum, et cum, spiritu tuo. Et benedictio dei omnipotentis, Patris et Filii et spiritus Santi descendant, super vos et maneat semper