An interview of Bishop Athanasius Schneider about the SSPX, women and footwashing, the consecration of Russia, anti-pastoral bishops, and more
We do not endorse unreservedly every statement of Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana, Kazakhstan. However, Schneider’s voice has become an influential one in the Church, especially in more “traditional” circles, and we felt our readers should be aware of that voice. Schneider was born in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan, into an ethnically German family, on April 7, 1961 and so is 54 years old. He is a member of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra. He was ordained a priest on March 25, 1990 and consecrated a bishop on June 2, 2006. He has written a book entitled Dominus Est — It Is the Lord: Reflections of a Bishop of Central Asia on Holy Communion. He criticizes Church leaders who seek to change the doctrine of the Church: “Those clerics want another Church and even another religion: a naturalistic religion which is adapted to the spirit of the time. Such clerics are really wolves in sheep’s clothing, often flirting with the world, not courageous shepherds but rather cowardly rabbits.”
For Schneider, we live “in a time in which a great part of the holders of the office of the Magisterium are negligent in their sacred duty.” He respectfully but clearly does not exclude the Pope from being part of the crisis: “The Pope is surely not the measure of Tradition, but on the contrary. If the Pope would tell the entire Church to do something which would directly damage an unchangeable divine truth or a divine commandment, every Catholic would have the right to correct him in a duly respectful form…” And he concludes: “We must always pray that God provides His Church with tradition-minded Popes.”
His last words about the Church show a deep love for and faith in Holy Mother Church: “The Church is Christ’s, and He alone holds and leads her indefectibly even through the darkest periods of crisis.” Here are his thoughts.
—The Editor
Read the full text of Post-Synod Church and Unbelievers in the Hierarchy here.
Liturgy Opinion: A Sixth Instruction on the Reform of the Liturgy?
A teacher at Sant’Anselmo in Rome, which focuses on Church liturgy, has a view on the liturgy which is virtually the opposite of Bishop Schneider’s view. In a recent article, Prof. Andrea Grillo argues that Pope Francis should change the direction of the past 15 years of the liturgical reform — called during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI “the reform of the reform” — and issue a sixth Instruction on the Liturgy, one more “progressive” than the 2001 document Liturgiam Authenticam, which sought to restrict liturgical experimentation and aberrations. Here are excerpts from his text. —The Editor
Professor Grillo begins by writing: “In the structure of Pope Francis’ pontificate — it cannot be said frequently enough — the liturgy has a place, not of ‘direct discourse,’ but rather of ‘indirect practice.’ This is because the Pope is a ‘son of the Council,’ which he incarnates in supple and concrete ways. In his Masses at Casa Santa Marta, his Wednesday audiences, and his Sunday homilies, as well as in his major discourses and specifically liturgical measures (for example, the modification of the rubrics of the Holy Thursday footwashing), it is clear that Francis celebrates the liturgy with ‘the joy of the Gospel.’”
Grillo continues: “But there is more. Francis’ ‘programmatic’ text, Evangelii Gaudium, lays out an ecclesial vision of a church on mission — like a ‘field hospital’ — in a way that draws new attention to the relationship between liturgy and life, and between liturgy and culture. This vision is expressed in Francis’ intention to decentralize curial power, entrusting to regional episcopacies competence that is even doctrinal in character.”
He continues: “The appropriation of such decentralization within the teaching of Evangelii Gaudium itself is already highly significant. All of this contrasts fundamentally with what has been happening in the area of liturgy for the past 15 years, since the promulgation of the fifth Instruction “For the Right Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,” Liturgiam Authenticam (2001). That document has effectively stalled at the universal level every effort at authentic inculturation of the liturgy.”
He continues: “Liturgiam Authenticam called for a universal retooling of the liturgy based on its Latin prototype — one that is inevitably static and closed off — by favoring an obstinately and scholastically literal translation and by pretending that the vernacular languages bear the same structure and rhetorical elements as Latin. This has been, from the beginning, a project lacking any solid foundation, not only in simple, human experience, but also in the tradition of the Church.”
After taking a slap at the use of Latin in the liturgy (“Who could have devised such an abstruse and self-referential system? If the entire structure is determined by a language that ‘has no future’ — which is the case for Latin, a language without the capacity for renewal, a quality that some find reassuring, because that means it is also deprived of a history — how long will it be before tradition is reduced to nothing more than a ‘wax museum’?”), Grillo makes his proposal: “After a troubled 15-year reign, Liturgiam Authenticam has reached the end of its line. Not only have legitimate criticisms been raised from the start, from both doctrinal and pastoral points of view, but the facts have demonstrated it to be, throughout these years, both flawed in theory and virtually inapplicable in practice… The literalistic radicalism of Liturgiam Authenticam has generated division and despair, and this was easily predictable 15 years ago. It is clear now that the most widespread sentiment among the leadership of episcopal conferences throughout the world is fear… There can be no authentic liturgy until we reject the lifeless and defensive stance of Liturgiam Authenticam, which will only give us a Church that is closed and locked in its own past, where the liturgy becomes a ‘diocesan museum,’ with air conditioning and bulletproof glass cases. This is now the conditio sine qua non: either a new, sixth instruction on liturgical reform is written, or we will be increasingly dominated by fear, paralysis, and immobility.”
—Reprinted from praytellblog.com, where it was printed with the permission of Munera. Rivista Europea di Cultura. Andrea Grillo teaches liturgy at Sant’Anselmo in Rome. He is the author of Beyond Pius V: Conflicting Interpretations of the Liturgical Reform, published by Liturgical Press.
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