Humanly speaking, Bishop Schneider doesn't see Leo XIV reversing Francis' course.
The celebration of the Pontifical Mass at the end of October in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore - instead of St. Peter’s Basilica - can be described as a “consolation prize,” Bishop Athanasius Schneider told Gloria.tv (video below).
It is “sad,” he said, that these Catholics are not allowed to celebrate Mass in St. Peter’s.
At the same time, Santa Maria Maggiore is the most important Marian church in Christendom. Both Pius V - who codified the traditional Mass for all time - and Francis - who restricted it - are buried there.
Bishop Schneider intends to pray with the faithful for liturgical peace and for the traditional Mass to be celebrated again without restrictions.
Asked whether Leo XIV might reverse Francis’ course, Schneider replied: “Humanly speaking, I don’t think so. But there is still God.”
The pilgrimage will pray for Leo XIV, asking God to grant him many graces.
Schneider calls the suppression of the traditional Mass a “great injustice.” He identifies confusion in the faith and liturgical anarchy as further afflictions of the Church.
Regarding the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX), Bishop Schneider said he had the impression that Rome was not genuinely interested in finding a solution.
Superior General Father Davide Pagliarani wrote several letters to Leo XIV without receiving a single reply. Schneider described the letters as very respectful and reverent.
At the February meeting with Cardinal Fernández, Rome presented what Bishop Schneider calls “maximum demands”: acceptance of the Second Vatican Council as a whole and of the goodness of the New Mass.
“These are two key points that the FSSPX cannot accept, because they would compromise the integrity of the faith.”
By contrast, Schneider said, that in the Vatican’s agreement with communist China, the Holy See went to extreme lengths to accommodate the government, including on episcopal appointments, in order to avoid a canonical schism.
This arrangement is "contrary to divine law" because the Church is not national and cannot ultimately be governed by the Communist Party.
Bishop Schneider sees an ideological reason behind the pastoral severity toward the FSSPX: an effort to establish the ideology of Modernism within the Church.
Schneider describes ecumenical and interreligious dialogues as undermining the purity of the faith. Even when the Novus Ordo is celebrated correctly, he says its texts remain problematic and, at the very least, doctrinally highly ambiguous.
In his view, the Vatican wants everyone to accept this program.
Bishop Schneider describes the FSSPX as the last remaining reality in the Church that categorically resists such ambiguities. He believes this voice is meant to be silenced and brought into line with the general course.
After the episcopal consecrations on July 1, Schneider visited several FSSPX apostolates and came away with a very positive impression of both clergy and laity. They continue to pray for the Holy Father and seek contact with local bishops: “That is a good sign that there is a genuine Catholic spirit.”
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16:41
~ "Tenete traditiones. Permanete in iis quae didicistis." ~ "Keep the traditions, ~ stand fast in those things which you have learned". ~ (Thessalonians 2:14)