Santo Atanásio, santo e doutor da Igreja, tem o epíteto de "Contra Mundum", para lembrar que ele lutou praticamente sozinho contra todos, dentro e fora da Igreja, que defendiam a heresia do arianismo. Ele chegou a ser excomungado e morreu sem reconhecimento. Mas a história e a Igreja o exaltou posteriormente. Assim, a história dele nos lembra que aqueles que lutam pela verdade, devem saber que lutam pela verdade acima de tudo, e não pelo reconhecimento de ninguém.
Ele fala abertamente o que acha do último sínodo da Igreja e do atual momento da Igreja Católica.
Ele diz que :
- houve manipulação no sínodo, isto é, alguém ou algumas pessoas manipularam para que o sínodo adotasse uma postura em favor de gays e divorciados que se casaram de novo.
- pela primeira vez a Igreja libera publicamente um documento pré-fabricado que não era oficialmente decidido pelos bispos.
- que tem profunda admiração pelas famílias dos dias de hoje que enfrentam grandes desafios.
- pessoas ainda casadas pela Igreja não podem receber comunhão. A Igreja estaria apoiando o adultério.
- o fariseus não são os conservadores mas os "inovadores" porque estes neglegenciam os mandamentos de Deus.
- elogia blogueiros e jornalistas católicos que se comportaram como verdadeiros soldados de Cristo e acusaram a agenda dos "inovadores" como herética.
- que os jovens católicos devem se levantar e dizer que recusam o espírito neo paganista que avança na Igreja.
Bom, estou sem nenhum tempo para traduzir a entrevista. A entrevista é longa, e eu teria que corrigir inúmeros erros do Google Translate. Ela deve ser lida integralmente. Aqui vai toda a entrevista.
The Church
and the world do urgently need intrepid and candid witnesses of the whole truth
of the commandment and of the will of God, of the whole truth of Christ’s words
on marriage. Modern clerical Pharisees and Scribes, those bishops and cardinals
who throw grains of incense to the neo-pagan idols of gender ideology and
concubinage, will not convince anyone to either believe in Christ or to be
ready to offer their lives for Christ - said + Athanasius
Schneider Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana,
Kazakhstan in interview with Izabella Parowicz.
Your
Excellency, what is Your Excellency’s opinion about the Synod? What is its
message to families?
During the
Synod there had been moments of obvious manipulation on the part of some clerics
who held key positions in the editorial and governing structure of the Synod.
The interim report (Relatio post disceptationem) was clearly a prefabricated
text with no reference to the actual statements of the Synod fathers. In the
sections on homosexuality, sexuality and “divorced and remarried” with their
admittance to the sacraments the text represents a radical neo-pagan ideology.
This is the first time in Church history that such a heterodox text was
actually published as a document of an official meeting of Catholic bishops
under the guidance of a pope, even though the text only had a preliminary
character. Thanks be to God and to the prayers of the faithful all over the
world that a consistent number of Synod fathers resolutely rejected such an
agenda; this agenda reflects the corrupt and pagan main stream morality of our
time, which is being imposed globally by means of political pressure and
through the almost all-powerful official mass media, which are loyal to the
principles of the world gender ideology party. Such a synod document, even if
only preliminary, is a real shame and an indication to the extent the spirit of
the anti-Christian world has already penetrated such important levels of the
life of the Church. This document will remain for the future generations and
for the historians a black mark which has stained the honour of the Apostolic
See. Fortunately the Message of the Synod Fathers is a real Catholic document
which outlines the Divine truth on family without being silent about the deeper
roots of the problems, i.e. about the reality of sin. It gives real courage and
consolation to Catholic families. Some quotations: “We think of the burden imposed by life
in the suffering that can arise with a child with special needs, with grave illness,
in deterioration of old age, or in the death of a loved one. We admire the
fidelity of so many families who endure these trials with courage, faith, and
love. They see them not as a burden inflicted on them, but as something in
which they themselves give, seeing the suffering Christ in the weakness of the
flesh. … Conjugal love, which is unique and indissoluble, endures despite many
difficulties. It is one of the most beautiful of all miracles and the most
common. This love spreads through fertility and generativity, which involves
not only the procreation of children but also the gift of divine life in
baptism, their catechesis, and their education. … The presence of the family of Jesus,
Mary, and Joseph in their modest home hovers over you”.
Those
groups of people who had been expecting a change in the Church’s teaching with
regard to the moral issues (e.g. allowing divorced and remarried people to
receive Holy Communion or granting any form of approval for homosexual unions)
were probably disappointed by the content of the final Relatio. Isn’t
there, however, a danger that questioning and discussing issues that are
fundamental for the Church’s teaching may itself open doors for serious abuses
and for similar attempts to revise this teaching in the future?
In fact a
Divine commandment, in our case the sixth commandment, the absolute
indissolubility of the sacramental marriage, a Divinely established rule, means
those in a state of grave sin cannot be admitted to Holy Communion. This is
taught by Saint Paul in his letter inspired by the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians
11, 27-30, this cannot be put to the vote, just as the Divinity of Christ would
never be put to a vote. A person who still has the indissoluble sacramental
marriage bond and who in spite of this lives in a stable marital cohabitation
with another person, by Divine law cannot be admitted to Holy Communion. To do
so would be a public statement by the Church nefariously legitimizing a denial
of the indissolubility of the Christian marriage and at the same time repealing
the sixth commandment of God: “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. No human
institution not even the Pope or an Ecumenical Council has the authority and
the competency to invalidate even in the slightest or indirect manner one of
the ten Divine commandments or the Divine words of Christ: “What therefore God
has joined together, let man not separate (Math 19:6)”. Regardless of this
lucid truth which was taught constantly and unchangingly - because unchangeable
- through all the ages by the Magisterium of the Church up to our days as for
instance in “Familiaris consortio” of Saint John Paul II, in the Catechism of
the Catholic Church and by Pope Benedict XVI, the issue of the admissibility to
Holy Communion of the so called “divorced and remarried” has been put to the
vote in the Synod. This fact is in itself grievous and represents an attitude
of clerical arrogance towards the Divine truth of the Word of God. The attempt
to put the Divine truth and the Divine Word to a vote is unworthy of those who
as representatives of the Magisterium have to hand over zealously as good and
faithful rules (cf. Math 24, 45) the Divine deposit. By admitting the “divorced
and remarried” to Holy Communion those bishops establish a new tradition on
their own volition and transgressing thereby the commandment of God, as Christ
once rebuked the Pharisees and Scribes (cf. Math 15: 3). And what is still
aggravating, is the fact that such bishops try to legitimize their infidelity
to Christ’s word by means of arguments such as “pastoral need”, “mercy”,
“openness to the Holy Spirit”. Moreover they have no fear and no scruples to
pervert in a Gnostic manner the real meaning of these words labeling at the
same time those who oppose them and defend the immutable Divine commandment and
the true non-human tradition as rigid, scrupulous or traditionalist. During the
great Arian crisis in the IV century the defenders of the Divinity of the Son
of God were labeled “intransigent” and “traditionalist” as well. Saint Athanasius
was even excommunicated by Pope Liberius and the Pope justified this with the
argument that Athanasius was not in communion with the Oriental bishops who
were mostly heretics or semi-heretics. Saint Basil the Great stated in that
situation the following: “Only
one sin is nowadays severely punished: the attentive observance of the
traditions of our Fathers. For that reason the good ones are thrown out of
their places and brought to the desert” (Ep. 243).
In fact the
bishops who support Holy Communion for “divorced remarried” are the new
Pharisees and Scribes because they neglect the commandment of God, contributing
to the fact that out of the body and of the heart of the “divorced remarried”
continue to “proceed adulteries” (Math 15: 19), because they want an exteriorly
“clean” solution and to appear “clean” as well in the eyes of those who have
power (the social media, public opinion). However when they eventually appear
at the tribunal of Christ, they will surely hear to their dismay these words of
Christ: “Why
are you declaring my statutes and taking my covenant in your mouth? Seeing you
hate instruction, and cast my words behind you, … when you have been partaker
with adulterers” (Ps 50 (49):
16-18).
The final
Relatio of the Synod also unfortunately contains the paragraph with the vote on
the issue of Holy Communion for “divorced remarried”. Even though it has not
achieved the required two third of the votes, there remains nevertheless the
worrying and astonishing fact that the absolute majority of the present bishops
voted in favor of Holy Communion for the “divorced and remarried”, a sad
reflection on the spiritual quality of the catholic episcopacy in our days. It
is moreover sad, that this paragraph which hasn’t got the required approval of
the qualitative majority, remains nevertheless in the final text of the Relatio
and will be sent to all dioceses for further discussion. It will surely only
increase the doctrinal confusion among the priests and the faithful, being in
the air, that Divine commandments and Divine words of Christ and those of the
apostle Paul are put at the disposal of human decision making groups. One
Cardinal who openly and strongly supported the issue of Holy Communion for
“divorced and remarried” and even the shameful statements on homosexual
“couples” in the preliminary Relatio, was dissatisfied with the final Relatio,
and declared impudently: “The glass is half-full”, and analogously he said that
one has to work that next year at the Synod it will be full. We must believe firmly
that God will dissipate the plans of dishonesty, infidelity and betrayal.
Christ holds infallibly the rudder of the boat of His Church in midst of such a
big storm. We believe and trust in the very ruler of the Church, in Our Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the truth.
We are
currently experiencing a culmination of aggression against the family; this
aggression is accompanied by a tremendous confusion in the area of science
about human and human identity. Unfortunately, there are certain members of
Church hierarchy who, while discussing these matters, express opinions that
contradict the teaching of Our Lord. How should we talk with those people who
become victims of this confusion in order to strengthen their faith and to help
them towards salvation?
In this
extraordinarily difficult time Christ is purifying our Catholic faith so that
through this trial the Church will shine brighter and be really light and salt
for the insipid neo-pagan world thanks to the fidelity and the pure and simple
faith firstly of the faithful, of the little ones in the Church, of the
“ecclesia docta” (the learning church), which in our days will strengthen the
“ecclesia docens” (the teaching Church, i.e. the Magisterium), in a similar way
as it was in the great crisis of the faith in the IV century as Blessed John
Henry Cardinal Newman stated: “This
is a very remarkable fact: but there is a moral in it. Perhaps it was
permitted, in order to impress upon the Church at that very time passing out of
her state of persecution the great evangelical lesson, that, not the wise and
powerful, but the obscure, the unlearned, and the weak constitute her real
strength. It was mainly by the faithful people that Paganism was overthrown; it
was by the faithful people, under the lead of Athanasius and the Egyptian
bishops, and in some places supported by their Bishops or priests, that the
worst of heresies was withstood and stamped out of the sacred territory. … In
that time of immense confusion the divine dogma of our Lord's divinity was
proclaimed, enforced, maintained, and (humanly speaking) preserved, far more by
the "Ecclesia docta" than by the "Ecclesia docens;" that
the body of the Episcopate was unfaithful to its commission, while the body of
the laity was faithful to its baptism; that at one time the pope, at other
times a patriarchal, metropolitan, or other great see, at other times general
councils, said what they should not have said, or did what obscured and
compromised revealed truth; while, on the other hand, it was the Christian
people, who, under Providence, were the ecclesiastical strength of Athanasius,
Hilary, Eusebius of Vercellæ, and other great solitary confessors, who would
have failed without them” (Arians of the Fourth Century, pp. 446,
466).
We have to
encourage ordinary Catholics to be faithful to the Catechism they have learned,
to be faithful to the clear words of Christ in the Gospel, to be faithful to
the faith their fathers and forefathers handed over to them. We have to
organize circles of studies and conferences about the perennial teaching of the
Church on the issue of marriage and chastity, inviting especially young people
and married couples. We have to show the very beauty of a life in chastity, the
very beauty of the Christian marriage and family, the great value of the Cross
and of the sacrifice in our lives. We have to present ever more the examples of
the Saints and of exemplary persons who demonstrated that in spite of the fact
that they suffered the same temptations of the flesh, the same hostility and
derision of the pagan world, they nevertheless with the grace of Christ led a
happy life in chastity, in a Christian marriage and in family. The faith, the
pure and integral Catholic and Apostolic faith will overcome the world (cf. 1
John 5: 4).
We have to
found and promote youth groups of pure hearts, family groups, groups of
Catholic spouses, who will be committed to the fidelity of their marriage vows.
We have to organize groups which will help morally and materially broken
families, single mothers, groups who will assist with prayer and with good
counsel separated couples, groups and persons who will help “divorced and
remarried” people to start a process of serious conversion, i.e. recognizing
with humility their sinful situation and abandoning with the grace of God the
sins which violate the commandment of God and the sanctity of the sacrament of
marriage. We have to create groups who will carefully help persons with
homosexual tendencies to enter the path of Christian conversion, the happy and
beautiful path of a chaste life and to offer them eventually in a discrete
manner a psychological cure. We have to show and preach to our contemporaries
in the neo-pagan world the liberating Good News of the teaching of Christ: that
the commandment of God, and even the sixth commandment is wise, is beauty: “The law of the Lord
is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise
the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps 19(18): 7-8).
During the
Synod, Archbishop Gądecki from Poznań and some other distinguished prelates
were publicly expressing their disagreement with the fact that the results of
the discussions departed from the perennial teaching of the Church. Is there a
hope that, amid this confusion, there will be an awakening of members of clergy
and those faithful who were so far unaware of the fact that, in the very
Church’s bosom, there are people who undermine the teaching of Our Lord?
It is certainly
an honor for Polish Catholicism that the President of the Catholic episcopate,
His Excellency Archbishop Gądecki, defended with clarity and courage the truth
of Christ about marriage and human sexuality, thus revealing himself to be a
true spiritual son of Saint John Paul II. Cardinal George Pell characterized
the liberal sexual agenda and the alleged merciful and pastoral support of Holy
Communion for “divorced remarried” during the Synod very aptly, saying that
this is only the tip of the iceberg and a kind of a Trojan horse in the Church.
That in the
very bosom of the Church, there are people who undermine the teaching of Our
Lord became an obvious fact and one for the whole world to see thanks to the
internet and the work of some Catholic journalists who were not indifferent to
what was happening to the Catholic faith which they consider to be the treasure
of Christ. I was pleased to see that some Catholic journalists and internet
bloggers behaved as good soldiers of Christ and drew attention to this clerical
agenda of undermining the perennial teaching of Our Lord. Cardinals, bishops,
priests, Catholic families, Catholic young people have to say to themselves: I
refuse to conform to the neo-pagan spirit of this world, even when this spirit
is spread by some bishops and cardinals; I will not accept their fallacious and
perverse use of holy Divine mercy and of “new Pentecost”; I refuse to throw
grains of incense before the statue of the idol of the gender ideology, before
the idol of second marriages, of concubinage, even if my bishop would do so, I
will not do so; with the grace of God I will choose to suffer rather than
betray the whole truth of Christ on human sexuality and on marriage.
The witnesses will convince the world, not the
teachers, said Blessed Paul VI in “Evangelii nuntiandi”. The Church and the
world do urgently need intrepid and candid witnesses of the whole truth of the
commandment and of the will of God, of the whole truth of Christ’s words on
marriage. Modern clerical Pharisees and Scribes, those bishops and cardinals
who throw grains of incense to the neo-pagan idols of gender ideology and
concubinage, will not convince anyone to either believe in Christ or to be
ready to offer their lives for Christ. Indeed “veritas Domini manet in
aeternum” (Ps 116: the truth of the Lord remains forever) and “Christ is the
same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebr 13: 8) and “the truth will set you
free” (John 8: 32). This last phrase was one of the favorite biblical phrases
of Saint John Paul II, the pope of the family. We can add: the revealed
and unchangeably transmitted Divine truth about human sexuality and marriage
will bring true freedom to the souls inside and outside the Church. In midst of
the crisis of the Church and the bad moral and doctrinal example of some
bishops of his time Saint Augustine comforted the simple faithful with these
words: “Whatsoever
we bishops may be, you are safe, who have God for your Father and His Church
for your mother“ (Contra
litteras Petiliani III, 9, 10).
+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the
Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan.
