Bp. Schneider’s terrific talk in Rome – ACTION ITEM!

This is an ACTION ITEM.  I want you all to listen to this.  I want you all to act on what you heard.

His Excellency, Bishop Athanasius Schneider recently gave a terrific talk in Rome at the Angelicum entitled:

The Church on Earth and Its Essentially Militant

I captured the audio and “remastered” it a little, to make it a bit easier to understand.  I included the Q&A also with Fr. Clovis.

The first two paragraphs:

When there is no battle, there is no Christendom. When there is no battle, there is no true Church of God, no true Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council teaches us: “The whole of man’s history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity” (Gaudium et spes, 37). This dramatic situation of “the whole world [which] is in the power of the evil one” (1 Jn 5:19; cf. 1 Pet 5:8) makes man’s life a battle (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 409).

The Word of God teaches us: “Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art called” (1 Tim. 6:12). The Christian life is indeed a warfare. Saint Paul wrote that “we wrestle” against the powers of darkness. “Our battle is not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

[…]

The whole text (without digressions) can be found at LifeSite: HERE.  They are terrific for providing this.  The video (a bit static) is HERE, also through LifeSite.

In my opinion, Bp. Schneider’s talk is important.  It might mark a kind of turning point for the battle-weary or the supine.  It is certainly an encouragement to those who have been striving to build the wall, swords girt.

Listen to the Q&A, too.

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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9 Comments

  1. Amerikaner says:

    Bishop Schneider quotes Plinio Correa de Oliveira. Wasn’t Plinio investigated by the Vatican, along with his mother Donna Lucilia, into weird Catholic practices?

    [Wasn’t St. Monica investigated by St. Ambrose for strange practices in cemeteries?]

  2. Glennonite says:

    This lil’ lamb knows this shepherd’s voice.

  3. St. Irenaeus says:

    I have always been curious why the Catechism left out the classical conceptions of the Church militant, suffering, triumphant, especially since GS as quoted here speaks of “battle”…anyone know?

  4. JabbaPapa says:

    This is of the Lord.

    God Bless Bishop Schneider !!

    [It feels that way, doesn’t it.]

  5. Grateful to be Catholic says:

    Thank you, Father, for providing this much-improved audio. One can hear easily that the Bishop speaks from his heart, as a man who spent his childhood in the Soviet Union, whose family did not see a priest for years on end, and who received his First Holy Communion secretly and illegally from a priest who was later martyred. He knows what the war is and he knows how to recognize it under different guises.

  6. Amerikaner says:

    “[Wasn’t St. Monica investigated by St. Ambrose for strange practices in cemeteries?]”

    Interesting. I didn’t know that. Anywhere where I can read up on that?

  7. St. Irenaeus says:

    >>“[Wasn’t St. Monica investigated by St. Ambrose for strange practices in cemeteries?]”

    Interesting. I didn’t know that. Anywhere where I can read up on that?<<

    It's in Augustine's Confessions, but I don't have book/chapter reference at hand.

  8. Charles E Flynn says:

    @St. Irenaeus:

    From https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/s/st-augustines-confessions/summary-and-analysis/book-6-chapters-110 :

    Book 6 is distinguished by several digressions from the narrative of Augustine’s life into the lives of those around him, most notably Monica and his friend Alypius. A parallel theme in the stories concerns giving up a bad habit after being corrected by a wise friend. Monica, who has already earned a reputation for piety in Milan, is following the traditions of her homeland by bringing offerings of food and wine to the tombs of martyred saints. Although Monica herself is absolutely sober and respectful, Ambrose has forbidden the practice because of its tendency to be misused as an occasion for wild parties and its similarity to pagan rites. Somewhat to Augustine’s surprise, Monica gives it up without complaint after she hears Ambrose’s order. Monica’s story also emphasizes one of Augustine’s recurring themes: the abandonment of the physical for the high good of the spiritual. Instead of food, Monica learns to bring her heartfelt prayers to honor the saints.

  9. Fr. Reader says:

    Fr, you are a magician. You managed to divert the attention from Correa to St Monica.

    From Wikipedia:
    Corrêa de Oliveira’s opposition to the direction of the Council continued, and in a 1976 addendum to his book, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, he described Vatican II as “one of the greatest calamities, if not the greatest, in the history of the Church”.
    Apparently he said he also received messages from the Blessed Virgin.

    [And you know for sure that he didn’t, I suppose. I mentioned Monica, but you opened this rabbit hole that I am now definitively closing.]

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