Bishop Athanasius Schneider on the real Pharisees

During the Rosica Affair, the Fox and I received letters of prayer and encouragement from a Bishop ministering as an Auxiliary in an obscure diocese in a former Soviet republic. What a kind and good and holy man that did this to strangers at a time of distress. 

This bishop has made more Catholics aware of Kazakhstan than any other single person. His little gem, Dominus est, should be read by you and a copy given to a priest for good measure. This is the man that was responsible for Benedict XVI only giving Holy Communion on the tongue whilst people were kneeling. 

Bishop Athanasius Schneider is a Catholic, pure and simple. He is a bishop who speaks and writes words of truth and clarity lacking in many of those we hear from. It is galling to see that this man is not a Cardinal and close to the Pope such as the likes of Maradiaga, Wuerl and Kasper and others.

Rorate Caeli Blog has an exclusive interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider. I'll give you a little taste of it here but for the rest of that cool refreshing drink of Catholicism and episcopal spine. His words at Rorate Caeli are masterful and O, so Catholic. I invite you to go there to read it all, here, he quotes. Saint Basil the Great.

A back door to a neo-mosaic practice in the Final Report of the Synod

In a letter to Pope Damasus and to the Occidental Bishops, Saint Basil describes as follows the confused situation inside the Church: “The laws of the Church are in confusion.  The ambition of men, who have no fear of God, rushes into high posts, and exalted office is now publicly known as the prize of impiety.  The result is, that the worse a man blasphemes, the fitter the people think him to be a bishop.  Clerical dignity is a thing of the past. There is no precise knowledge of canons.  There is complete immunity in sinning; for when men have been placed in office by the favour of men, they are obliged to return the favour by continually showing indulgence to offenders. Just judgment is a thing of the past; and everyone walks according to his heart’s desire. Men in authority are afraid to speak, for those who have reached power by human interest are the slaves of those to whom they owe their advancement. And now the very vindication of orthodoxy is looked upon in some quarters as an opportunity for mutual attack; and men conceal their private ill-will and pretend that their hostility is all for the sake of the truth. All the while unbelievers laugh; men of weak faith are shaken; faith is uncertain; souls are drenched in ignorance, because adulterators of the word imitate the truth. The better ones of the laity shun the churches as schools of impiety and lift their hands in the deserts with sighs and tears to their Lord in heaven. The faith of the Fathers we have received; that faith we know is stamped with the marks of the Apostles; to that faith we assent, as well as to all that in the past was canonically and lawfully promulgated.” (Ep. 92, 2).