'To fight against heresy is a truly noble and selfless act, an expression of an authentic love for one’s neighbor,' Bishop Schneider told LifeSiteNews.
(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Athanasius Schneider, the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, kindly granted LifeSite an interview about his new book, Flee from Heresy: A Catholic Guide to Ancient and Modern Errors (Sophia Institute Press), whose publication date is today.
In this new interview (please see full text below), the prelate discusses the atmosphere of heresy and relativism in our Church today. “There reigns a ruthless relativism,” he says, further explaining that “philosophical and theological modernism,” as condemned by Pope Pius X at the beginning of the 20thcentury, “has been realized in all its devastating consequences in the life of the Church of our day.” Bishop Schneider goes on to say: “What’s more, even high-ranking ecclesiastical authorities in our day are promoting this modernism by various statements and official acts.” As a “prime example” of this modernism, he mentions the 2023 Vatican document Fiducia supplicans, “which authorizes the blessing of adulterous and sodomitic couples who cohabitate in a public and objectively sinful union.”
Asked about what lies at the root of today’s heresies, Schneider answers: “The root heresy of our time is relativism in its Hegelian characteristics. That means that [it claims] there cannot be a truth which is objectively always and everywhere in itself true. Truth is ultimately made by man and through historical development.”
LifeSite also asked Bishop Schneider about the relationship between the corruption of someone’s personal life and the development of heresies, as shown in the case of King Henry VIII. Henry was once a strong defender of the Catholic faith but took mistresses and broke with the Church when he was unable to obtain the annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. His legal marriage to Anne Boleyn was followed by four more. Bishop Schneider, who is of German descent, remarked on the Protestant movements in Europe at the time: “The Protestant revolution in Europe in the 16th century was almost entirely carried out by morally corrupt clergymen.” He explains this statement by pointing out that in most cases at the time, a “moral corruption, i.e. a hidden or public unchaste life, was the cause which led these clergymen to intellectual corruption, since they saw in the new heretical theories a justification of their infidelity towards their promise of celibacy (as priests) or of the solemn vow of chastity (as religious).”
No doubt God allows heresies to exist to bring about a greater good. Among the goods is the visible fidelity of some Catholics – clergy and faithful alike. Just like the few who stood at the Cross and are lauded for their fidelity to Christ to this day, those who remain loyal to Christ’s teachings now are a beacon of light. In Bishop Schneider’s words: “To fight against heresy is a truly noble and selfless act, an expression of an authentic love for one’s neighbor.”
LifeSite thanks Bishop Schneider for his own fidelity, clarity and charity in our difficult times. We also thank him for granting us this interview.