Schneider criticized bishops who ‘not only did not care but directly prohibited their faithful access to the sacraments, especially to the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and the sacrament of Penance’
ROME, May 22, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Bishop Athanasius Schneider said that bishops who have “directly prohibited their faithful access to the sacraments” during the coronavirus crisis have behaved as “fake shepherds.”
“The unbelievable fact was, that in midst of this worldwide ban of the public Holy Mass, many bishops even before the government banned public worship, issued decrees by which they not only forbade the public celebration of Holy Mass, but of any other sacrament as well,” Schneider said in a talk given today at the virtual Rome Life Forum hosted by Voice of the Family (read full talk below).
“Bishops who not only did not care but directly prohibited their faithful access to the sacraments, especially to the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and the sacrament of Penance, behaved themselves as fake shepherds, who seek their own advantage,” he added.
Schneider’s talk was titled “The Eucharist, the greatest treasure of the Church, in time of tribulations.” The auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, contrasted the approach of many bishops to the coronavirus with the heroic pastoral care provided in past health crises by Catholic priests such as St. Charles Borromeo.
Schneider said that the almost worldwide ban on the public celebration of Holy Mass had made it seem as though “the ruthless historical persecutions of the Church were brought back” and that there had developed “[a]n atmosphere of the catacombs…with priests celebrating Holy Mass in secrecy with a group of the faithful.”
Schneider contrasted the response of bishops today with the “many moving heroic examples from history, where priests consciously accepted the mortal danger of administering the sacraments to people infected with lethal contagious diseases.”
“In the time of the plague, which had an incomparably higher mortality rate as the current epidemic of Covid-19, St. Charles Borromeo increased the number of the public celebrations of Holy Mass,” Schneider explained.
“Even though he closed the churches for a while, he at the same time ordered that there should be Masses celebrated in many public and open places, such as squares, crossroads, street corners. He obliged the priests to visit the sick and the dying to administer them the sacraments of Penance and of Extreme Unction. He ordered public processions to be held, in which people walked in due distance, to make reparation for the sins and invoke Divine Mercy. St. Charles Borromeo did not forget the care for the body of the infected people, but at the same time his primary concern was the spiritual help of the sacraments, with which the sick had to be strengthened.”
Schneider also called on Pope Francis and bishops around the world to understand the public cessation of Holy Mass and sacramental Holy Communion during the Covid-19 epidemic as a “divine rebuke” for the liturgical crisis in the Church for the past fifty years.
He said that the cessation of Holy Mass was “so unique and serious that one can discover behind all of this a deeper meaning.”
“This event has come almost fifty years after the introduction of Communion in the hand (in 1969) and a radical reform of the rite of Mass (in 1969/1970) with its protestantising elements (Offertory prayers) and its horizontal and instructional style of celebration (freestyle moments, celebration in a closed circle and towards the people). The praxis of Communion in the hand over the past fifty years has led to an unintentional and intentional desecration of the Eucharistic Body of Christ on an unprecedented scale,” he said.
“The current cessation of public Holy Mass and Holy Communion could be understood by the Pope and bishops as a divine rebuke for the past fifty years of Eucharistic desecrations and trivializations and, at the same time, as a merciful appeal for an authentic Eucharistic conversion of the entire Church.”
He called on Pope Francis to “issue concrete liturgical norms” in order to address irreverence to the Holy Eucharist, including making ad orientem celebration of the Eucharistic prayer compulsory and forbidding the reception of Communion in the hand.
“Once the current tribulation has ended, the Pope should issue concrete liturgical norms, in which he invites the entire Church to turn again towards the Lord in the manner of celebration, i.e. celebrant and faithful turned in the same direction during the Eucharistic prayer,” Schneider said.
“The Pope should also forbid the practice of Communion in the hand, for the Church cannot continue unpunished to treat the Holy of Holies in the little sacred Host in such a minimalistic and unsafe manner.”
Schneider also suggested that Pope Francis together with cardinals and bishops should “carry out a public act of reparation in Rome for the sins against the Holy Eucharist, and for the sin of the acts of religious veneration to the Pachamama statues.”
Schneider concluded his address by speaking of the importance of listening to voices of faithful laity, who he said have been “humiliated and despised in the midst of the Church by an arrogant and undoubtedly Pharisaic clericalism.”
“These little lovers and defenders of the Eucharist will renew the life of the Church in our day and these words of Jesus are rightly and deservedly applied to them: “I bless you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have kept these things hidden to the wise and intelligent and you have revealed them to the little ones.” (Mt 11, 25) May this truth give us hope and light in the midst of darkness and increase our faith and our love for the Eucharistic Jesus, since when we have the Eucharistic Jesus, we have everything, and nothing will be missed.”
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