Bishop Schneider: Church hierarchy promotes ‘brazen heresies’ approaching ‘apostasy’
Bishop Athanasius Schneider told the Catholic Identity Conference that the Church is facing a hostile takeover from within its 'administrative structure.'
Bishop Athanasius
Schneider in Rome, October 26, 2023LifeSiteNews
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PITTSBURGH (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Athanasius Schneider said in a talk on Saturday that the Church is witnessing a “hostile takeover” from within its own hierarchy promoting “brazen heresies” that come close to apostasy.
While opening his address at the 2026 Catholic Identity Conference (CIC) on October 3 the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, emphasized that God in His Divine Providence has allowed an unprecedented crisis in the Church involving a hostile takeover within its “administrative structure.” He stressed that this “hostile takeover” is marked not merely by the spread of doctrinal ambiguities from the hierarchy but also by “brazen heresies” that in some cases border on apostasy.
“God’s inscrutable providence allowed it that we are witnesses of an unprecedented crisis of the Church. A hostile takeover within the strategic administrative structure of the Catholic Church,” the bishop said. “Which is marked by the spread of not only poisonous doctrinal ambiguities but even by brazen heresies in the ranks of the high clergy. A phenomenon which in some cases comes close to apostasy.”
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Indeed, in recent years, several prominent Catholic prelates have criticized several Vatican documents as at least coming close to heresy. In May, Schneider criticizedthe Final Report published by Synod Study Group 9, which suggested that homosexual “relationships” may not be sinful. The auxiliary bishop noted at the time that this echoes the serpent in the Garden of Eden and has “crossed the line from orthodoxy into heresy.”
Schneider then noted that Christ came to convert the world rather than be “of the world” and slammed the hierarchy for trying to make peace with the world, which is the enemy of Our Lord and His Church.
“The friendship of this world is the enemy of God. Let’s remember, therefore, that a friend of this world becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4),” he said. “To make peace with a human society or culture which rejects divine revelation and which rejects the uniqueness of Christ the Savior means a complete delusion, even a betrayal of Christ.”
Later in the talk, His Excellency reminded the faithful to take up their crosses and stressed the importance of staying on the boat with Christ during this unprecedented storm.
Schneider further noted that while only God knows how long this crisis, which appears to be apocalyptic, will last, the faithful should remain steadfast in the faith, highlighting signs of hope within the Church, especially young priests, seminarians, families, and lay Catholics who are embracing the true and timeless faith, and reminding the faithful that God will ultimately purify the Church.
READ: Bishop Schneider: ‘We have to be 100% Catholic, not 50%, or 80%’
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“The Lord is renewing the Church in our day, starting with the little ones. With families, large, Catholic families … sacrificial sisters in convents who are praying and sacrificing themselves in contemplative life, hermits who sacrifice themselves for the Church. These are the little ones,” he said.
“The little ones are also the young people who really love the true faith, the true liturgy … the young seminarians, young priests who love the Catholic faith of all times and the true liturgy of all times,” he added. “There are signs of hope, therefore. They are small, but nevertheless God loves to use the small ones, the little ones, to fulfill His Almighty works.”
Schneider continued:
This is happening in our day. People may ask, “Will the Catholic faith prevail once more in the world? If so, how might this happen? How long might it take? And what do we need to do?” Our Lord said in the Gospel that Christians are a small flock. We do not know the plans of God in our day (with) all the apocalyptic signs … when we see explicit blasphemy, there is blasphemy of Christian values, public blasphemy of Christ. But the world is nevertheless in the hands of God, not at all in the hands of the evil one. The Lord is the master of all history.… We must believe in our time, even in these horrible, apocalyptic scenarios, even within the Church, that God will draw a greater good from this current situation that He will purify the Church.
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- Apostasy
- Athanasius Schneider
- Bishop Athanasius Schneider
- Catholic Church
- Catholic Identity Conference
- Church hierarchy
