Interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider in Hungary

[larsont7]

His Excellency Athanasius Schneider gave an exclusive interview to Dániel Fülep, Director of the Newman Center in Hungary. The interview was done before Amoris Latitia came out, but is still an excellent read: newman.hu/index.php/interview-with-schneider/

Here is an excerpt from the interview, bolded emphasis mine:

We have observed for many years that many of the official episcopal conferences predominantly deal with temporal and earthly rather than supernatural and eternal matters although the latter should be considered the most important in the life of the Church. To save souls and to lead them to Heaven: this is the reason why Christ came to save us and founded the Church. Therefore the Church has to lead people to Heaven and transmit them divine truths, supernatural graces and the life of God. This is the main task of the Church. Dealing with temporal affairs is up to the government. So I see here an undue transition of the task of the government, the civil authority to the bishops, the successors of the apostles. Of course, based on her social doctrine, the Church can advise the government so that social life will be more adopted to the natural law. But this is not the main task of the Church. It is a secondary task. The current crisis of the Church is largely due to this: the substitution of the main task with secondary ones.

 

[RPRPsych]

His Excellency Athanasius Schneider gave an exclusive interview to Dániel Fülep, Director of the Newman Center in Hungary. The interview was done before Amoris Latitia came out, but is still an excellent read: newman.hu/index.php/interview-with-schneider/

Here is an excerpt from the interview, bolded emphasis mine:

Great interview. I like the way he thinks, and we definitely need voices like him in the Church rather than “looking in on the outside”.

 

[OldYoungGuy]

Bishop Schneider is a true prince of the Church who doesn’t speak in ambiguous hodgepodgery.

 

[commenter]

His Excellency Athanasius Schneider gave an exclusive interview to Dániel Fülep, Director of the Newman Center in Hungary. The interview was done before Amoris Latitia came out, but is still an excellent read: newman.hu/index.php/interview-with-schneider/

You have to question the prudence of granting interviews to publications totally opposed to the Magisterium. The interviewer’s comments are bizarre. He describes the majority of bishops as heretics, and pharisees. He ridicules the “Argentine Pope”.

In effect he also rejects the last 2 popes as well, since they, like Pope Francis, apparently are wrong in thinking Russia has been consecrated properly. Aside from the fact that this is based on a private devotion, which recent popes all respect, how would Mr. Fulep know? Does he have private channels with Mary? I can understand (not condone) why Mr. Fulep would reject the Magisterium, which he describes as weak and dysfunctional(!)

But why would Bishop Schneider dignify an anti-Magisterium publication? Getting any bishop to meet with them is a coup for this Center, just as it was for Rorate Coeli. It boosts their donations. You might say this Newman Center, and Rorarate Coeli, are not at all like National Catholic Reporter, Call to Action, LCWR, etc. But they are essentially the same thing - they all oppose most of the leadership of the Catholic Church.

 

[RPRPsych]

You have to question the prudence of granting interviews to publications totally opposed to the Magisterium. The interviewer’s comments are bizarre. He describes the majority of bishops as heretics, and pharisees. He ridicules the “Argentine Pope”.

In effect he also rejects the last 2 popes as well, since they, like Pope Francis, apparently are wrong in thinking Russia has been consecrated properly. Aside from the fact that this is based on a private devotion, which recent popes all respect, how would Mr. Fulep know? Does he have private channels with Mary? I can understand (not condone) why Mr. Fulep would reject the Magisterium, which he describes as weak and dysfunctional(!)

But why would Bishop Schneider dignify an anti-Magisterium publication? Getting any bishop to meet with them is a coup for this Center, just as it was for Rorate Coeli. It boosts their donations. You might say this Newman Center, and Rorarate Coeli, are not at all like National Catholic Reporter, Call to Action, LCWR, etc. But they are essentially the same thing - they all oppose most of the leadership of the Catholic Church.

You make good points.

But it’s not too different from an interview with a secular press obsessed with gay rights, pro-abortion statements and “progressivism”. The Bishop’s answers seem fine to me, even if the interviewer’s comes off as a passive-aggressive “Resistance” type.

 

[commenter]

You make good points.

But it’s not too different from an interview with a secular press obsessed with gay rights, pro-abortion statements and “progressivism”. The Bishop’s answers seem fine to me, even if the interviewer’s comes off as a passive-aggressive “Resistance” type.

If a bishop grants an interview to a secular publication, that is kind of a risk, but usually does more harm than good. No one thinks the NY Times is Catholic, so there’s no ambiguity there. Granting an interview to a publication that presents itself as Catholic, and sometimes does have Catholic features, is far riskier.

For instance if a school is solidly Catholic 95% of the time, I would send my child there. I don’t expect perfection. But if a school is solidly Catholic half the time, and secularistic half the time but presenting that secularism as a version of Catholicism, I would stay away from that school. Better to send your child to a secular school that presents itself as secular, 5 days a week, than a school that is Catholic 2 days a week, and claims to be always Catholic.

The same is true of granting interviews. If I were a bishop I would never grant an interview with National Catholic Reporter, but probably would to CNN.

 

[RPRPsych]

If a bishop grants an interview to a secular publication, that is kind of a risk, but usually does more harm than good. No one thinks the NY Times is Catholic, so there’s no ambiguity there. Granting an interview to a publication that presents itself as Catholic, and sometimes does have Catholic features, is far riskier.

For instance if a school is solidly Catholic 95% of the time, I would send my child there. I don’t expect perfection. But if a school is solidly Catholic half the time, and secularistic half the time but presenting that secularism as a version of Catholicism, I would stay away from that school. Better to send your child to a secular school that presents itself as secular, 5 days a week, than a school that is Catholic 2 days a week, and claims to be always Catholic.

The same is true of granting interviews. If I were a bishop I would never grant an interview with National Catholic Reporter, but probably would to CNN.

Again, well said.

To be honest, I wish the Church would officially

1. stop granting simple interviews, and handle everything by official pronouncements and publications, and
2. monitor and censure all media (print, online video, blogs) that deviate from the Magisterium either to the “left” (such as NCR and America Magazine) or “right” (such as The Remnant or Fatima Crusader).

Not gonna happen, but a man can dream…

 

[larsont7]

You have to question the prudence of granting interviews to publications totally opposed to the Magisterium.

In the good Bishop’s defense, this John Henry Newman Center doesn’t have anything on its website that shows opposition to the Magisterium, nor is there any way of knowing if Bishop Schneider was aware of the viewpoints of Mr. Fulep prior to granting the interview. The Center itself appears to be a higher education training center, not a rebel Catholic institution aimed at attacking the Holy Fathers of the past few decades. Then again, I am relying on Google translate, so I could be wrong.

So, taking your opinions of the interviewer aside and actually looking at Bishop Schneider’s responses, what are your thoughts on the interview itself?

 

[gracepoole]

The Newman Center is opposed to the Magisterium?

 

[RPRPsych]

The Newman Center is opposed to the Magisterium?

I don’t think this is the same as the Newman Centre for Education in the United States. It’s a “John Henry Newman Center of Higher Education, Hungary”. Unfortunately, I can’t read Hungarian, so I can’t tell what the rest of the site is like. But considering that the guy doing the interview is their Director, I dare say they’re rather rigorist. Of course, it could also be a translation issue.

Nice to see both the interviewer and Bp. Schneider calling out Kiko Arguello though. Long overdue.

 

[Lormar]

Again, well said.

To be honest, I wish the Church would officially

1. stop granting simple interviews, and handle everything by official pronouncements and publications, and
2. monitor and censure all media (print, online video, blogs) that deviate from the Magisterium either to the “left” (such as NCR and America Magazine) or “right” (such as The Remnant or Fatima Crusader).

Not gonna happen, but a man can dream…

I’ll dream along with you.

 

[RPRPsych]

I’ll dream along with you.

Thanks, I can certainly use the company.

I remember something my mother once told me years ago: she felt that the Church (and her leaders) had lost their “mystique” once they came out into the open and became a Press exhibit like every other nation’s leaders. I think she was on to something.

Also, I think the Index of Forbidden Books needs to be resurrected - not for silly things like the novels of Alexandre Dumas or Emile Zola, but for any book (again, “right” or “left” doesn’t matter) that purports to be Catholic but teaches otherwise. Dream another dream…

 

[commenter]

In the good Bishop’s defense, this John Henry Newman Center doesn’t have anything on its website that shows opposition to the Magisterium, nor is there any way of knowing if Bishop Schneider was aware of the viewpoints of Mr. Fulep prior to granting the interview. The Center itself appears to be a higher education training center, not a rebel Catholic institution aimed at attacking the Holy Fathers of the past few decades. Then again, I am relying on Google translate, so I could be wrong.

So, taking your opinions of the interviewer aside and actually looking at Bishop Schneider’s responses, what are your thoughts on the interview itself?

I like your response. I tend to make sweeping statements like the good bishop. I made a distinction between his own statements, and the interviewer’s. But you pin me down, so…

I share some of Bishop’s concerns over ambiguities regarding statements by bishops on doctrines, especially the glaring omissions. The Church does have a responsibility to reaffirm, in capital letters, certain things that people today are unaware of. So credit him there.

But he himself opens the Church up to the dangerous tendencies of our time.
“When the simple faithful observe that representatives of the clergy, and even of the high clergy, neglect the Catholic faith and proclaim errors, they should pray for their conversion, they should repair the faults of the clergy through a courageous witness of the faith. Sometimes, the faithful should also advise and correct the clergy…”

For every Catherine of Siena, there are 1000 National Catholic Reporters. I know, people will say “We’re not like the Call to Action types, we’re just the opposite”. Yup.

So, overall, I think while the bishop has some very timely points of things useful for 2016, he does not take into account the extreme anti-religious authority climate of our time, and the ways bad or weak people will use his statements.

 

[Lormar]

Commenter, you seem to understand two sides of the coin. Here’s a question for you since you mentioned St. Catherine of Siena.

Let’s just say for instance that the Church is off course at the moment. What do you think Our Lord wants the faithful Catholic to do? Join forces with the CFN/Remnant crowd? Go along with the current flow in the Church at the moment?

 

[Church_Militant]

Who says the church is off course? She has her problems, but that’s no excuse at all for being disobedient and staying away from Mass and the sacraments or scandalously badmouthing her or her clergy, bishops, and the Pope.

That is just plain sin needing a good confession and a deep conversion of heart that all people need.

Those sedes are no one to listen to. They are no better than anti-Catholic fundamentalists.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

Nice to see both the interviewer and Bp. Schneider calling out Kiko Arguello though. Long overdue.

The Neocatechumenal Way is a tremendous blessing to the Church, as those who have worked with it know, and its efforts are to be praised and extended.

en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/03/06/pope_francis_addresses_members_of_the_neocatechumenal_way_/1127462

From our Holy Father in March of last year:

*Dear brothers and sisters,

Peter’s task is to confirm his brothers and sisters in the faith. So you too have wanted with this gesture to ask the Successor of Peter to confirm your call, to support your mission, to bless your charism. And I want to confirm your call, support your mission and bless your charism. I’m doing that not because I’ve been paid to: No! (laughs) I’m doing it because I want to. You will go forth in the name of Christ into the world to bring His Gospel: Christ will precede, Christ will accompany and Christ will fulfill the salvation of which you are bearers!

Together with you I greet all the Cardinals and Bishops who accompany you today and who in their dioceses support your mission. In particular I greet the initiators of the Neocatechumenal Way, Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández, with Father Mario Pezzi: I also would like to express my appreciation and my encouragement for the great benefit they bring to the Church through the Way. I always say that the Neocatechumenal Way does great good in the Church.

As Kiko said, our meeting today is a missionary commissioning, in obedience to what Christ asked us: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. And I am particularly glad that this mission is carried out thanks to Christian families, united in a community, who have the mission to give witness to our faith that attract people to the beauty of the Gospel, in the words of Christ: “This is how all will know that you are my disciples”(cf. Jn 13:34), and “be one and the world may believe” (cf. Jn 17:21). These communities, called by the Bishops, are formed by a priest and four or five families, with children including grown-up ones, and are a “missio ad gentes”, with a mandate to evangelize non-Christians. Non-Christians who’ve never heard about Jesus Christ and the many non-Christians who’ve forgotten who Jesus Christ was, who is Jesus Christ: baptized non-Christians but who have forgotten their faith because of secularization, worldliness and many other things. Re-awaken that faith! So, even before words, it is your witness of life that manifests the heart of Christ’s revelation: that God loves man to the point of laying down His life for us and that he was raised by the Father to give us the grace to give our lives for others. Today’s world badly needs this great message. How much solitude, how much suffering, how much distance from God in the many peripheries of Europe and America, and in many cities of Asia! Today, in every latitude, humanity greatly needs to hear that God loves us and that love is possible! These Christian communities, thanks to you missionary families, have the essential task of making this message visible. And what is this message? “Christ is risen, Christ lives. Christ lives amongst us””

You have received the strength to leave everything behind and set off for distant lands through a process of Christian initiation, experienced and lived in small communities, where you have rediscovered the immense riches of your Baptism. This is the Neocatechumenal Way, a true gift of Providence to the Church of our time, as my predecessors have already stated; especially St. John Paul II when he said: “I recognize the Neocatechumenal Way as an itinerary of Catholic formation, valid for society and for our times” (Epist. Whenever, August 30, 1990: AAS 82 [1990], 1515). The Way is based on the three dimensions of the Church which are the Word, Liturgy and Community. So obedient and constant listening to the Word of God; the Eucharistic celebration in small community after the first Vespers of Sunday, the family celebration of lauds on Sunday with all the children gathered round and sharing their faith with other brothers and sisters are at the origin of the many gifts the Lord has given to you as well as the many vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. It is a great consolation to see all of this, because it confirms that the Spirit of God is alive and active in His Church, even today, and that He meets the needs of modern man.

On several occasions I have insisted that the Church has to move from a pastoral ministry of mere conservation to a decidedly missionary pastoral ministry (cf. ibid., N. Evangelii gaudium, 15). How often, within the Church, do we keep Jesus inside and don’t let him out. …. How often! This is the most important thing to do if we do not want the waters to stagnate within the Church. For years now the Way has been undertaking these missio ad gentes among non-Christians, for an implantatio Ecclesiae, a new presence of the Church, where the Church does not exist or is no longer able to reach people. “How much joy you give us with your presence and your activity!” - said Blessed Pope Paul VI during the very first audience with you (May 8, 1974: Teachings of Pope Paul VI, XII [1974], 407). I also make these words my own and encourage you to move forward, entrusting you to the Blessed Virgin Mary who inspired the Neocatechumenal Way. May she intercede for you with her divine Son.

My dearly beloved, may the Lord accompany you. Go forth, with my Blessing.*

 

[Don_Ruggero]

Commenter, you seem to understand two sides of the coin. Here’s a question for you since you mentioned St. Catherine of Siena.

Let’s just say for instance that the Church is off course at the moment. What do you think Our Lord wants the faithful Catholic to do? Join forces with the CFN/Remnant crowd? Go along with the current flow in the Church at the moment?

I am very sorry to read this declaration.

I count it an incredible gift to have lived in the era that I have, relative to the Church. Far from being a Church “off course,” I have lived my priesthood in what I could only describe as a profoundly extraordinary moment in the life and history of the Church. If I could have chosen a time to be a priest, I would have chosen none other than this incredible epoch.

In a span of three out of four papacies, we have two who are canonised, one who is beatified…with John Paul I’s cause for beatification moving forward and, I expect, Paul to be canonised sooner rather than later. But even without those events that are still in the future, the last time in Church history I remember two occupants of the chair of Peter being canonised in such close proximity to each others span as Bishop of Rome was Saint Leo IX and Saint Gregory VII…in the 11th century.

 

[Lormar]

I am very sorry to read this declaration.

I count it an incredible gift to have lived in the era that I have, relative to the Church. Far from being a Church “off course,” I have lived my priesthood in what I could only describe as a profoundly extraordinary moment in the life and history of the Church. If I could have chosen a time to be a priest, I would have chosen none other than this incredible epoch.

In a span of three out of four papacies, we have two who are canonised, one who is beatified…with John Paul I’s cause for beatification moving forward and, I expect, Paul to be canonised sooner rather than later. But even without those events that are still in the future, the last time in Church history I remember two occupants of the chair of Peter being canonised in such close proximity to each others span as Bishop of Rome was Saint Leo IX and Saint Gregory VII…in the 11th century.

It’s not a declaration. It’s a “what if” question.

You are a priest, and one that has studied everything in depth and for years. I am a layperson in the pews.

 

[commenter]

Commenter, you seem to understand two sides of the coin. Here’s a question for you since you mentioned St. Catherine of Siena.

Let’s just say for instance that the Church is off course at the moment. What do you think Our Lord wants the faithful Catholic to do? Join forces with the CFN/Remnant crowd? Go along with the current flow in the Church at the moment?

I volunteer in 2 ministries that are solidly orthodox, and in union with our local bishop and pope. There are other things in my diocese that I disagree with. I try not to express my disagreement publicly, but communicate, briefly and tactfully, to officials when I see an egregious abuse that is within their power to make better. I try to pick my battles, don’t complain about everything that I am not thrilled about.

I assume my bishop, and the pope, have more information at their disposal than I do, and give them the benefit of the doubt. I get angry and frustrated about some things - generally diocesan bureaucrats that seem to me careless. I pray, but not nearly enough. I spend too much time on CAF. Sometimes my letters or emails have brought about some measurable improvement. Sometimes not yet. I try to communicate when good things happen too.

From my layperson view, my diocese has a lot fewer abuses going on now, and many of the people who are still doing bad things are close to retirement. The seminarians and young priests are all solid. But there is far more hostility against the Catholic Church than, say, 40 years ago, coming from the government, media, educational systems. So I won’t write a letter to the Editor against the bishop regarding a problem, because there usually is other info he cannot make public, other struggles I know nothing about. But I will communicate privately to the appropriate level, with a specific abuse or specific suggestion.

 

[PRmerger]

Who says the church is off course? She has her problems, but that’s no excuse at all for being disobedient and staying away from Mass and the sacraments or scandalously badmouthing her or her clergy, bishops, and the Pope.

That is just plain sin needing a good confession and a deep conversion of heart that all people need.

Those sedes are no one to listen to. They are no better than anti-Catholic fundamentalists.