Want Clear Teaching about the Faith in a Time of Crisis? Listen to Bishop Schneider!

I recently finished Bishop Athanasius Schneider's book, The Catholic Mass which enriched my understanding of the great gift Jesus gave us in the Holy Eucharist. Now I'm reading The Springtime that Never Came, which exposes many of the challenges we face today. If you want to know why we have a crisis in the Church, Bishop Schneider's book will open your eyes to many of them.

The book takes the form of questions and answers "in conversation with Pawel Lisicki." I'm in the early chapters, and already one, The Gnostic Threat, exposes a serious problem with Vatican II's document on religious freedom that Francis has exacerbated with his statements and his actions. 

Lisicki asked whether we are experiencing the deepest crisis the Church has ever faced. His question:

...there are many who think that the degree of chaos and uncertainty in the Church today can't be compared to anything we know from earlier times. What do you think about that?

The bishop responded:

It definitely can't be denied

Bishop Schneider went on to speak about the Arian heresy and Luther's rebellion, pointing out that, while in error, neither rejected the belief that Christianity is the only true religion willed by God. Today, however:

...because of the influence of modernism, the appearance of modernest elements in some conciliar documents, and above all because of the dangerous passages in the conciliar document on religious liberty, Dignitatis Humanae, the current crisis is much deeper than the earlier ones we know from history.

He goes on to quote from the document:

This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits. The council further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person as this dignity is known through the revealed Word of God and by reason itself....the right to religious freedom has its foundation not in the subjective disposition of the person, but in his very nature  In consequence, the right to this immunity continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it and the exercise of this right is not to be impeded. 

The Church has always taught that no one should be "coerced" into accepting a religion, but that is a far cry from saying that the individual has a "right" by nature and God's will to worship false gods, a violation of the first commandment.

It appears that this is what Dignitatis Humanae has given us.

According to Bishop Schneider:

This is one of the most dangerous statements. This places Christianity on par with all natural religions and thus implicitly challenges its position as the only true religion. If the human person by nature has the right to freedom, that is, in not being impeded in choosing and practicing different religions, this ultimately means that God positively willed this right of freedom to choose also a false religion, and thus could not have demanded man's obedience toward His one and only revelation. I see in this a huge danger of relativism, according to which there is no truth binding in itself. If we claim that all religions are positively willed by God, which is supposed to follow from natural law, this will ultimately lead to collapse of Christianity. We are dealing here with a direct attack on Christianity as such....

Absolutely! And it is coming from both outside and inside the Church. The bishop goes on: 

...it's important to emphasize that according to natural law a person can't be forced to embrace a religion [He uses the example of Islam.]....But the problem  is that the sentence of the conciliar declaration that nobody can be forced to embrace a religion doesn't end here. Here we see the comma, the famous comma. The second part of that sentence adds that with regard to religious freedom "no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs...." Further on it proclaims that such a right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person, and as such it's positively willed by God. Thus man can freely disseminate any religious doctrine and must not be prevented from doing so. This is precisely the danger and the novelty. God doesn't want the dissemination of error. There is no natural right to choose a false religion.

Space prevents me from continuing, but consider this in the light of the Assisi meetings and Abu Dhabi when the pope actually stated that different religions were willed by God. Did God will the religion of the Aztecs or the church of Satan which has secular rights equal to the Catholic Church? The confusion generated by the ideas put forth in Dignitatis Humanae is massive and the inevitable result is that many of the flock will fall into syncretism,  the belief that one can fuse together irreconcilable differences to make something new. Impossible! The attempt to do so attacks reason itself! And it leads to people abandoning the true faith.

Isn't this what's happening today? How many are abandoning the Catholicism for churches that offer more "fellowship" or allow them to embrace certain sins like divorce and contraception? Since most Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence, the rock of the faith, why should they stay? They can get "communion" at the local Baptist or Methodist churches.

Moral relativism is a curse and one that many are embracing. If past doctrines can be turned on their heads with the refrain that "the times they are a-changin'" then God is not the eternal God I learned about in the Baltimore Catechism:

What do we mean when we say that God is eternal?

"When we say that God is eternal we mean that He always was and always will be, and always remains the same. ”

God gives us the same revelation today that He gave to the apostles 2000 years ago and He expects their descendants to pass it on. The faith is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. However, we have bishops, priests, and even a pope who seem to be teaching the opposite. We are likely to see just how much they are turning the Catholic faith on its head at the upcoming synod which begins next week.  Which is why Catholics need to know their faith and cling to it like a life preserver...because it is. Know the difference between false and true shepherds and don't let yourself be hood winked!

Bishop Schneider is a trustworthy voice in a confusing world. Want to know, love, and serve God? Then know your faith. You can find plenty of resources at Bishop Schneider's website. Let him be your teacher and guide. He is a faithful son of the Father.