Bishop on Unbelievers in Hierarchy
LAST WEEK, Rorate Caeli interviewed His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, one of the most visible prelates working on the restoration of the traditional Latin Mass and faith, on numerous topics.
In this wide-ranging interview, His Excellency thoughtfully expounded on issues critical to the Church in this great time of crisis. Read the entire interview so you don’t miss His Excellency’s thoughts on the current status of the SSPX, women’s participation in the Mass and the washing of women’s feet, whether Russia was ever truly consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Summorum Pontificum and anti-pastoral bishops and much, much more.
POST-SYNOD CHURCH & UNBELIEVERS IN THE HIERARCHY
Rorate Caeli: In the recent Synod, we will not know the legal impact it will have on the Church for some time, as it’s up to Pope Francis to move next. Regardless of the eventual outcome, for all intent and purposes, is there already a schism in the Church? And, if so, what does it mean practically speaking? How will it manifest itself for typical Catholics in the pews?
H.E. Schneider: Schism means according to the definition of the Code of Canon Law, can. 751: The refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with those members of the Church who are submitted to the Supreme Pontiff. One has to distinguish the defect in belief or heresy from schism. The defect in belief or heresy is indeed a greater sin than schism, as Saint Thomas Aquinas said: ‘Unbelief is a sin committed against God Himself, according as He is Himself the First Truth, on which faith is founded; whereas schism is opposed to ecclesiastical unity, which is a lesser good than God Himself. Wherefore the sin of unbelief is generically more grievous than the sin of schism’ (II-II, q. 39, a. 2 c).
The very crisis of the Church in our days consists in the ever growing phenomenon that those who don’t fully believe and profess the integrity of the Catholic faith frequently occupy strategic positions in the life of the Church, such as professors of theology, educators in seminaries, religious superiors, parish priests and even bishops and cardinals. And these people with their defective faith profess themselves as being submitted to the Pope.
The height of confusion and absurdity manifests itself when such semi-heretical clerics accuse those who defend the purity and integrity of the Catholic faith as being against the Pope – as being according to their opinion in some way schismatics. For simple Catholics in the pews, such a situation of confusion is a real challenge of their faith, in the indestructibility of the Church. They have to keep strong the integrity of their faith according to the immutable Catholic truths, which were handed over by our fore-fathers, and which we find in in the Traditional catechisms and in the works of the Fathers and of the Doctors of the Church.
Rorate Caeli: Speaking of typical Catholics, what will the typical parish priest face now that he didn’t face before the Synod began? What pressures, such as the washing of women’s feet on Maundy Thursday after the example of Francis, will burden the parish priest even more than he is burdened today?
H.E. Schneider: A typical Catholic parish priest should know well the perennial sense of the Catholic faith, the perennial sense as well of the laws of the Catholic liturgy and, knowing this, he should have an interior sureness and firmness. He should always remember the Catholic principle of discernment: ‘Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus’, i.e. ‘What has been always, everywhere and from all’ believed and practiced.
The categories ‘always, everywhere, all’ are not to be understood in an arithmetical, but in a moral sense. A concrete criterion for discernment is this: ‘Does this change in a doctrinal affirmation, in a pastoral or in a liturgical practice constitute a rupture with the centuries-old, or even with the millennial past? And does this innovation really make the faith shine clearer and brighter? Does this liturgical innovation bring to us closer the sanctity of God, or manifest deeper and more beautiful the Divine mysteries? Does this disciplinary innovation really increase a greater zeal for the holiness of life?’
As concretely to the innovation of washing the feet of women during the Holy Mass of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday: This Holy Mass celebrates the commemoration of the institution of the sacraments of the Eucharist and the Priesthood. Therefore, the foot washing of women along with the men not only distracts from the main focus on Eucharist and on Priesthood, but generates confusion regarding the historical symbolism of the ‘twelve’ and of the apostles being of male sex. The universal tradition of the Church never allowed the foot washing during the Holy Mass, but instead outside of Mass, in a special ceremony.
By the way: the public washing and usually also kissing of the feet of women on the part of a man, in our case, of a priest or a bishop, is considered by every person of common sense in all cultures as being improper and even indecent. Thanks be to God no priest or bishop is obliged to wash publicly the feet of women on Holy Thursday, for there is no binding norm for it, and the foot washing itself is only facultative.
PRIESTLY FRATERNITY OF ST. PIUS X (SSPX)
Rorate Caeli: A non-typical situation in the church is the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). Why does Your Excellency think that so many Catholics are afraid of the SSPX or anxious about any association with it? From what Your Excellency has seen, what gifts do you think the SSPX can bring to the mainstream Church?
H.E. Schneider: When someone or something is unimportant and weak, nobody has fear of it. Those who have fear of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X ultimately have fear of the perennial Catholic truths and of its demands in the moral and the liturgical domain.
When the SSPX tries to believe, to worship and to live morally the way our fore-fathers and the best-known Saints did during a millennial period, then one has to consider the life and the work of these Catholic priests and faithful of the SSPX as a gift for the Church in our days – even as one of the several instruments which the Divine Providence uses to remedy the enormity of the current general crisis of the faith, of the morals and of the liturgy inside the Church.
In some sectors of the SSPX there are, however, as it is the case in every human society some eccentric personalities. They have a method and a mindset which lack justice and charity and consequently the true ‘sentire cum ecclesia,’ and there is the danger of an ecclesial autocephaly and to be the last judicial instance in the Church. However, to my knowledge, the healthier part corresponds to the major part of the SSPX and I consider their General Superior, His Excellency Monsignor Bernard Fellay, as an exemplarily and true Catholic bishop. There is some hope for a canonical recognition of the SPPX. To read the entire, very outspoken interview click here
![I consider [the SSPX] General Superior, His Excellency Monsignor Bernard Fellay, [pictured] as an exemplarily and true Catholic bishop. (Bishop Schneider) (Bishop Schneider)](https://i0.wp.com/catholictruthscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/bpbernardfellay_012.jpg?resize=281%2C300&ssl=1)
true Catholic bishop.
(Bishop Schneider)
Comment:
Bishop Schneider is to be commended for speaking out. Will any UK Bishops follow suit? If not, why not?
Comments (23)
No, I don’t believe any UK bishops will follow suit, the reasons being either loss of faith or human respect/fear of the reactions of the other bishops in the Bishops’ Conference. Much has been said on this blog about the evil effects of these structures on the individual bishop.
Bishop Schneider, thank God, belongs to a Bishops’ Conference of only four bishops headed by Archbishop Tomash Peta, and the direction of the latter’s thoughts, and so of this small group of bishops, are perhaps indicated in this report:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/10/15/archbishop-peta-the-smoke-of-satan-has-entered-synod-discussions/
Kazakhstan, with its small Catholic population of 250,000 out of 15,000,000, is, because of its recent history, a small oasis where Catholicism has perhaps become less corrupted than is the case in the West. Bishop Schneider was, surprisingly, ordained as recently as 1990, having been born during Vat.II. I think that there is great hope for the Church here, and that the new seminary in Kazakhstan will give her well-formed, holy priests. It is a very good sign that Bishop Schneider speaks so well of Bishop Fellay.
The bishop says people fear SSPX because of its fidelity to true Catholic doctrine and morality.
Er, no – people fear SSPX because of its fidelity to the dark side of the Church in days gone past – triumphalism, political and religious bigotry, harshness and rigorism.
Tony
For a minute there I thought you were talking about freemasonry.
Tony Buck,
I don’t believe what you have just written. “the dark side of the Church in days gone by” – what does that mean?
Also, what do you mean by “triumphalism”?
Can you give examples of all the things you have mentioned? I can’t think of any triumphalism, bigotry, harshness or rigorism. I honestly can’t. I’m looking forward to reading your examples.
Tony Buck
Spoken like a true enemy of truth!
Athanasius,
You are right. Tony Buck’s attack on Holy Mother Church is disgraceful. He is cowardly by disappearing after writing what he did, instead of admitting he was wrong and apologising. There are more “Roman Protestants” these days than Catholics!
It appears we have another troll, Editor, except that the M.O. of this one differs from the previous one. This one is a hit-and-run, as we say across the pond – that is, post his Catholic-hating screed early in the discussion, and then head for the hills until the next topic appears.
RCA Victor,
You are probably right. Tony comes on here from time to time, as you say, in a hit and run exercise. Still, we never let him have the last word, always give him the truth to mull over in his modernist mind, so one lives in hope that he will come to the fullness of the truth in due course, unlike us here rebels and idolaters!
That’s really what separates this blog from the others, Editor: you correct the profane deposits of impiety with the sacred deposit of Faith (Pope Francis and your fellow travelers: take note of how the Old Evangelization works!). Now about that pay rise…
RCA Victor
“Now about that pay rise…”
LOL!
Tony Buck,
What are you saying? That the Church was evil prior to Vatican II?
Are you a Protestant?
To answer the two questions.
1. NO
2. In the case of the Scottish bishops – too feart.
Anyway, why would they say anything since they are not only part of the problem but actually enjoying it.
Tony
I feel that you are unable to make a cogent argument in support of your beliefs, but perhaps I’m wrong, so let me ask you a few questions:
1. Do you believe that artificial contraception is wrong?
2. Do you believe that homosexual activity is wrong?
3. Do you believe that “remarriage” after divorce is wrong?
4. Do you believe that sexual activity between a male and a female before marriage is wrong?
Yes or no answers to the above are required, please and thank you as our esteemed Editor would say, and they will give me a better understanding of what you mean by harshness and rigorism.
RSVP
“The very crisis of the Church in our days consists in the ever growing phenomenon that those who don’t fully believe and profess the integrity of the Catholic faith frequently occupy strategic positions in the life of the Church…”
Or, as an episode of “Yes, Prime Minister” put it several years ago, much more bluntly and to the point, “A modernist is a clergyman who no longer believes in God!”
(I loved His Excellency’s veiled reference to the “Resistance” in the last paragraph.)
That’s a fantastic interview with Bishop Schneider. Thank God for him. I just wish others would follow his good example and speak out without mincing their words.
That, indeed is a fantastic interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider. He does not appear too popular amongst the liberal Bishops, according to this interview he gave while in England in June 2015.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2014/06/06/bishop-athanasius-schneider-we-are-in-the-fourth-great-crisis-of-the-church/
I think each and every one of us should send this link to his / her P.P. and Bishop. Who knows, they might even read it!
Bishop Schneider’s discussion is definitely worth reading in full. He goes on to say how the church , the body of Christ is suffering as if Christ continues to be scourged.
I have just received a booklet by John Vennari which describes the revelations made to Sr. Sainte Pierre in ” The Revelations of the Holy Face of Jesus.”
It is very inspiring and I recommend it for all to read as it explains what is happening in the church and offers through the prayers to The Holy Face a means of gaining reparation and consolation in these terrible times.
‘I consider (the SSPX) General Superior, H.E. Monsignor Bernard Fellay as an exemplarily and true Catholic bishop.’
I imagine he said exactly the same thing about H.E. Keith O’Brien.
Constantine,
You can imagine all you like. We don’t know that, and I personally doubt it. What we DO know is that he DID praise Bishop Fellay as quoted.
Facts are kinda stubborn things.
Bishop Schneider is great. I hope he keeps on speaking out.
Bishop Schneider will give a Conference on marriage at the ICKSP church of SS Peter, Paul and Philomena, New Brighton, on 27th February at 3.00pm. The Conference will be preceded by Pontifical Solemn Mass at 12.00 noon, and a social at 2.00pm.
This was a fantastic interview from +Schneider, in particular his kind remarks (very accurate) regarding Bishop Fellay and about how the SSPX is a “gift to the Church” and “one of the several instruments which the Divine Providence uses”.
I can imagine more than a few modernist faces resembling bulldogs chewing wasps after those gems got out!
Sadly, but unsurprisingly, the interview was over-looked by the mainstream Catholic media. However, as per the Gospel on the recent Sexagesima Sunday, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”.
Comments are closed.