Athanasius Schneider

Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C. (born Anton Schneider on 7 April 1961) is a Kazakhstani Roman Catholic bishop, the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan. He is a member of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra.

His Excellency, the Most Reverend

Athanasius Schneider

O.R.C.
Auxiliary Bishop of Mary Most Holy in Astana
Titular Bishop of Celerina
Bishop Schneider in Chartres, France
DioceseMary Most Holy in Astana
Appointed5 February 2011
Other postsTitular Bishop of Celerina
Orders
Ordination25 March 1990
by Manuel Pestana Filho
Consecration2 June 2006
by Angelo Cardinal Sodano
Personal details
Birth nameAnton Schneider
Born (1961-04-07) 7 April 1961
Tokmok, Kirghiz SSR, Soviet Union (present day Kyrgyzstan)
NationalityKazakhstani
DenominationRoman Catholic
Previous postAuxiliary bishop of Karaganda
MottoKyrie eleison
Coat of arms
Styles of
Athanasius Schneider
Reference styleThe Right Reverend
Spoken styleYour Excellency
Religious styleMonsignor

Family and early life

Anton Schneider was born in Tokmok, Kirghiz SSR, in the Soviet Union. His parents were Black Sea Germans from Odessa in the Ukraine.[1] After the Second World War they were sent by Stalin to a gulag in Krasnokamsk in the Ural Mountains. In Krasnokamsk, the family was closely involved with the underground church. Schneider's mother, Maria, was one of several women who helped shelter the Blessed :uk:Oleksa Zaryckyj, a Ukrainian priest, who would later be imprisoned in the infamous Karlag by the Soviet regime for his ministry; he would eventually be martyred in 1963. The family traveled to the Kirghiz SSR after being released from the camps.[2] Later, they left Central Asia for Estonia.[3] As a boy, Schneider and his three siblings would attend clandestine Masses with their parents, often traveling sixty miles from the family's home in Valga to Tartu, taking the first train in the morning under the cover of darkness and returning with the last train at night. Due to the great distance, infrequent visits by the clergy, and crackdowns by the Soviet authorities, they were able to make the trip only once a month.[1] In 1973, shortly after making his first Holy Communion in secret, Schneider emigrated with his family to Rottweil in West Germany.[4]

Training and priesthood

In 1982, Schneider joined the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra, a Roman Catholic religious order within the Opus Sanctorum Angelorum, in Austria. He took the religious name of Athanasius upon joining the order. Schneider was ordained a priest by Bishop Manuel Pestana Filho of the Diocese of Anápolis on 25 March 1990, and spent several years as a priest in Brazil before returning to Central Asia.[5] Starting in 1999, he taught Patristics at Mary, Mother of the Church Seminary in Karaganda. On 2 June 2006 he was consecrated a bishop at the Altar of the Chair of Saint Peter in the Vatican by Angelo Cardinal Sodano. In 2011 he was transferred to the position of auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Astana.[6] He is the General Secretary of the Bishops' Conference of Kazakhstan.[7]

Bishop Schneider speaks German, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, English, French and Italian, and he reads Latin and Ancient Greek.[8]

Views

Schneider is known for his traditionalism. He has criticized clergy members whom he believes do not fully adhere to the faith and who instead surrender to what he calls a "cruel pagan world." In 2014, he compared them to "members of the clergy and even bishops who put grains of incense in front of the statue of the emperor or of a pagan idol or who delivered the books of the Holy Scripture to be burned." Schneider alleged that even in the present age there are "traitors of the Faith."[9] Schneider has frequently travelled to conferences hosted by conservative and traditional Catholics. In 2018, he was warned by the Holy See to limit his travel outside of his diocese, as canon law requires that a bishop be absent from it for no more than a month unless performing some official duty. This led to him increasingly appearing at conferences via video.[10]

Holy Communion

Schneider supports the posture of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue while kneeling in the liturgy.[11] This is the theme of his 2008 book Dominus Est,[12][13] published in Italian, and since translated into English, German, Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish, Hungarian and Chinese. The book contains a foreword written by Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, then the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the current Archbishop of Colombo and Metropolitan head of the church in Sri Lanka.[14] In the book, Schneider writes that receiving Holy Communion in this way had become standard practice in the Church by the 5th century, and that Pope Gregory I strongly chastised priests who refused to follow this tradition.[11]

Schneider encourages Catholics who truly believe they are receiving Christ in the Blessed Sacrament to kneel and receive Communion on their tongues. In 2009, he wrote, "The awareness of the greatness of the eucharistic mystery is demonstrated in a special way by the manner in which the body of the Lord is distributed and received."[15]

Schneider offering Mass in 2009

Schneider has vigorously upheld the traditional teaching of the Church that divorce and remarriage outside of it constitutes adultery, a mortal sin, therefore making one ineligible to receive Holy Communion.[9][16] In a 2014 interview, Schneider said that calls for change to this practice came from "anti-Christian media." He suggested this was "a false concept of mercy," saying: "It is comparable to a doctor who gives a [diabetic] patient sugar, although he knows it will kill him."[9] In 2016, Pope Francis released the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia, which seemed to allow divorced and remarried persons to take the Eucharist. This was extremely controversial, and afterwards some bishops began to allow the divorced and remarried to receive the sacrament. This development was strongly criticized by Schneider, who said that perennial teaching on marriage and Communion is "more powerful and surer than the discordant voice and practice of admitting unrepentant adulterers to Holy Communion, even if this practice is promoted by a single Pope or the diocesan bishops."[16] On April 7, 2018, Schneider, along with conservative cardinals Raymond Leo Burke and Walter Brandmüller, participated in a conference rejecting the outline proposed by German bishops to allow divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist. Schneider spoke of the duty of popes to be "custodians" of authority.[17]

Clergy sex abuse

On August 25, 2018 Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former apostolic nuncio to the United States, released an 11-page letter describing a series of warnings to the Vatican regarding sexual misconduct by Theodore McCarrick, accusing Francis of failing to act on these reports and calling on him to resign.[18] Schneider said that there was "no reasonable and plausible cause to doubt the truth content of the document." He demanded "ruthlessness and transparency" in cleansing the Church of evils, particularly "homosexual cliques and networks" in the curia that he and some others have blamed for helping to cause the abuse epidemic. Schneider called on all "cardinals, bishops and priests to renounce any compromise and any flirt with the world."[19]

Interreligious relations

Schneider stated in a January 2013 interview that proselytizing by "false religions and sects" should be restricted in majority-Catholic counties. "When there is (a Catholic majority) then false religions and sects have not the right to make propaganda there," he said. Schneider added that this does not mean that governments can "suppress them, they can live, but (governments) cannot give them the same right to make propaganda to the detriment of Catholics."[20]

Schneider has spoken out against Muslim immigration into Europe. He stated that heavy Muslim immigration into Europe during the 2010s was orchestrated by "international powerful political organizations...to take away from Europe its Christian and its national identity. It is meant to dilute the Christian and the national character of Europe." Schneider alleged that the Syrian Civil War was created by international powers in order to stimulate a migrant crisis to de-Christianize Europe, and that mass immigration into Europe from Northern Africa was likewise "artificially created."[21]

Liturgy

Schneider is a strong promoter of the Tridentine Mass.[22] He has rebuked priests for using "a careless and superficial–almost an entertainment style" of liturgy, adding that liturgy must be conducted with "beauty and reverence." According to Schneider, "You cannot change the liturgy by the tastes of the time. The liturgy is timeless." Schneider has offered Mass in the Byzantine Rite multiple times. He spoke highly of it as being "permeated with respect, with reverence, with a supernatural spirit and adoration."[21] Schneider criticized the closing of churches during the COVID-19 pandemic, remarking that numerous other services remained open and stating that churches could remain open if additional Masses were offered in order to limit the number of people in the churches at one time and if sanitation guidelines were followed.[23]

Declaration of Truths

At a theological conference in Rome in December 2010, Schneider proposed the need for "a new Syllabus" (recalling the Syllabus of Errors of 1864), in which papal teaching authority would correct erroneous interpretations of the documents of the Second Vatican Council.[24][25][26]

On June 10, 2019, Schneider, along with cardinals Burke and Jānis Pujats, as well as Kazakh archbishops Tomasz Peta of Astana and Jan Paul Lenga, published a 40-point "Declaration of Truths" claiming to reaffirm traditional Church teaching. The bishops wrote that such a declaration was necessary in a time of "almost universal doctrinal confusion and disorientation." Specific passages in the declaration implicitly relate to several writings by Pope Francis. The declaration states that "the religion born of faith in Jesus Christ" is the "only religion positively willed by God," seemingly alluding to the Document on Human Fraternity signed by Pope Francis which stated that the "diversity of religions" is "willed by God." Following recent changes to the Catechism to oppose capital punishment, the declaration states that the Church "did not err" in teaching that civil authorities may "lawfully exercise capital punishment" when it is "truly necessary" and to preserve the "just order of societies."[27]

Amazon Synod

In September 2019, Schneider and Burke published an 8-page letter denouncing what they alleged to be six theological errors in the working document for the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region and asking that Pope Francis "confirm his brethren in the faith by an unambiguous rejection of the errors." Burke and Schneider criticized the document for its "implicit pantheism," support for married clergy and a greater role for women in the liturgy, and for what they considered to be excessive openness to pagan rituals and practices common among the Amazonian peoples. They asked that the laity and the clergy pray at least one decade of the Rosary and fast weekly for the rejection of such ideas over a 40-day period, from September 17 to October 26.[28]

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References
  1. "How Bishop Athanasius Schneider became a leading Voice for Catholic Truth". National Catholic Register. 17 January 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  2. "Kazakhstan's Deep Christian Roots – ZENIT – English". Zenit.org. 28 June 2010. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  3. "Kazakhstan, Outpost of Catholic Orthodoxy". 27 January 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  4. "Bishops Ordained for Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan". 7 June 2006. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  5. Schneider, Athanasius (2019). Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age, In conversation with Diane Montagna. Brooklyn, NY: Angelico Press. p. 30. ISBN 9781621384892.
  6. David M. Cheney. "Bishop Athanasius Schneider [Catholic-Hierarchy]". Catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 January 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. Schneider, Athanasius (2019). Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age, In conversation with Diane Montagna. Brooklyn, NY: Angelico Press. p. xi. ISBN 9781621384892.
  9. Atkinson, Sarah (6 June 2014). "Bishop Athanasius Schneider: 'We are in the fourth great crisis of the Church'". The Catholic Herald. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  10. "Bishop Schneider explains Vatican's restrictions on his travel". Correspondenza Romana. 9 November 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  11. "News Features". Catholic Culture. 22 April 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  12. Cf. § Bibliography
  13. Latin Mass Society of England and Wales: "Interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider" Archived 20 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine May 2014
  14. Flynn, J.D. (1 February 2008). "Communion in hand should be revised, Vatican official says". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  15. "Vatican Newspaper Article Says Catholics Should Receive Communion Kneeling and on the Tongue | Mary\'s Anawim". Marysanawim.wordpress.com. 16 March 2009. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  16. "Bishop Schneider: priests must resist pressure on Communion for remarried". The Catholic Herald. 21 September 2017. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  17. Allen, John; Giangravé, Claire (7 April 2018). "Amoris' critics at Rome summit beg pope, bishops, 'Confirm us in the faith!'". Crux Now. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  18. Pentin, Edward (25 August 2018). "Ex-nuncio accuses Pope Francis of failing to act on McCarrick's abuse reports". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  19. Schneider, Athanasius (27 August 2018). "Reflection on the 'Testimony' of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò". National Catholic Register. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  20. Duncan, Robert (15 January 2013). "Bishop Athanasius Schneider on religious liberty". Catholic News Service. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  21. Senz, Paul (6 July 2018). "Bishop Athanasius Schneider discusses liturgy, priesthood, doctrinal confusion, immigration, Synod on the Youth". The Catholic World Report. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  22. Hitchens, Dan (26 January 2017). "Orthodox Catholicism's eastern outpost". The Catholic Herald. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  23. Chapman, Michael W. (31 March 2020). "Bishop Schneider: Closing Churches is 'Incomprehensible,' Markets and Metro Open". CNS News. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  24. "Bishop calls for new document correcting misinterpretations of Vatican II". Catholic Culture (Catholic World News). 21 January 2011.
  25. "Bishop Schneider speaks again, this time on Vatican II – In Caelo et in Terra". Incaelo.wordpress.com. 27 January 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  26. "Proposals for a Correct Reading of the Second Vatican Council". Ewtn.com. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  27. Pentin, Edward (10 June 2019). "New 'Declaration of Truths' Affirms Key Church Teachings". June 20, 2019. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  28. Pentin, Edward (12 September 2019). "Cardinal Burke, Bishop Schneider Announce Crusade of Prayer and Fasting". National Catholic Register. Retrieved 13 September 2019.

Bibliography
  • Schneider, Athanasius (1999). "Propter sanctam ecclesiam suam": die Kirche als Geschöpf, Frau und Bau im Bussunterricht des Pastor Hermae (in German). Rome: Patristic Institute Augustinianum. ISBN 88-7961-030-9. LCCN 00688210.
  • Schneider, Athanasius (2008). Dominus Est, it is the Lord: Reflections of a Bishop of Central Asia on Holy Communion [Dominus est, riflessioni di un vescovo dell' Asia Centrale sulla sacra Comunione]. Translated by Gregoris, Nicholas L. Pine Beach, N.J.: Newman House Press. ISBN 978-0-9778846-1-2. LCCN 2011276875.
  • Schneider, Athanasius (2019) Christus Vincit: Christ's Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age, In conversation with Diane Montagna.: Angelico Press

Interviews

Three lectures, a sermon and an exclusive interview. Hungarian and English language e-book version: http://mek.oszk.hu/15500/15547/15547.pdf (For the English version, see page 77)

  • Schneider, Athanasius; Fülep Dániel (July 2018). CATHOLIC CHURCH: WHERE ARE YOU HEADING?, Interview book, Theologian Dániel Fülep's interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana. The e-book is free download. Hungarian Electronic Library

http://mek.oszk.hu/18600/18638/18638.pdf

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