Transcript:
Host: Has anybody ever heard Bishop Schneider and Bishop Strickland on the radio together? Check it out. It’s on the internet. I did the interview with them, two strong bishops of the Church. I want to play this seven-minute video because the bishop would love to be here, but he’s, you know, halfway around the world in Kazakhstan. Way, way far away, thousands and thousands of miles. So if we could get our video team to play that clip, that would be grand.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Praise be Jesus Christ. Your Excellency, esteemed and dear Bishop Joseph Strickland, and dear participants after the Defending the Faith Conference in Tyler, Texas,
It is a great joy for me to greet you all. You have chosen this significant name for your conference, Defending Our Faith. It is for me a privilege and a joy to express to my brother in the episcopate, Bishop Joseph Strickland, my gratitude and appreciation for his intrepid dedication to uncompromisingly keep, transmit, and defend the Catholic faith in all truth.
We can apply to Bishop Strickland what Saint Basil the Great stated in his time. I quote: “The one charge which is now sure to secure severe punishment is the careful keeping of the tradition of the fathers.” So said Basil.
Thank you all, dear brothers and sisters, for supporting and defending also your beloved shepherd, Bishop Strickland. I pray that more bishops in our day may, like Bishop Strickland, raise their voice in defense of the Catholic faith, providing thereby spiritual nourishment and consolation for many Catholics who often feel abandoned like orphans.
For sure, future popes will thank all who, in this confused time, kept intrepid fidelity to the Catholic faith and to its holy traditions.
Dear brothers and sisters, in your intrepid fidelity to the integrity of the Catholic faith and its sacred liturgical traditions, you find yourself in the company of countless simple lay faithful of all ages and from all time periods.
Dear brothers and sisters, thank the providence of God that He has deigned you to live in such a distressful time so that you may have the unique possibility to prove, in all humility, your fidelity to the Holy Catholic faith, to suffer for its sake, and to contribute to the authentic renewal of the Church, proving to be true sons and daughters of the Church.
Abundant divine blessings upon you and the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Heavenly Mother.