Bishop Schneider Urges FSSP, Cardinals, and Bishops to Support - Not Attack - the FSSPX

Bishop Athanasius Schneider regrets that communities of the Roman rite, as well as cardinals and bishops, have come out against the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX). They attack the Priestly Fraternity, labelling its members schismatics and threatening excommunication. "This is unhelpful. It should be the contrary."

In an interview with RemnantNewspaper.com on 25 March, he encouraged Catholics to unite as the Church is one big family: "The FSSPX belongs to this family".

Bishop Schneider draws parallels with the Arian crisis in the 4th century. St Basil the Great described a situation in which even the good people, who were in the minority, were fighting each other, despite the fact that the majority of bishops were aligned with the heresy.

Basil described it as "a naval battle of ships in the sea, in mist and night, but instead of fighting the enemy ship, the good ones started to attack one another".

Bishop Schneider: "Why are the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter and others publicly and continuously attacking and threatening the FSSPX?"

He pleads with the traditional communities, good cardinals and bishops to make a united appeal to Leo XIV to grant the FSSPX the permission of episcopal consecrations in a generous, exceptional gesture.

He explains that the FSSPX is not outside the Church. They name the Pope and the bishop in the canon. They have Vatican-granted faculties to hear confessions. Furthermore, the Vatican has appointed Bishop Bernard Fellay of the FSSPX as the judge presiding over a criminal investigation into a priest of the Priestly Fraternity. "How can a schismatic do it?"

Bishop Schneider believes that Divine Providence has given the FSSPX to the Church during this extremely confusing and challenging period.

He explains that the magisterium of the Pope and the liturgy are currently obscured. He believes that the Holy See is partly obscured by the influence of neo-modernism — a combination of naturalism and relativism — but that this is only temporary.

One of his examples is the German Synod, which is undermining the entire church structure and turning it into a Protestant community. "Rome has not intervened for years."

The consecration of bishops for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X on 1 July will be "a bridge" until better times come.

Bishop Schneider asks for a balanced understanding of schism and obedience within the Church: "Not all disobedience to the Pope is automatically schismatic."

He continues: "Even the consecration of bishops against the will of the Pope, which is illicit, is not an evil act in itself, as a representative of a traditional Ecclesia Dei community has publicly stated. This is completely wrong."

"After the crisis, the Church will be grateful to the FSSPX."

Bishop Schneider praises the FSSPX for highlighting doctrinal ambiguities in the Novus Ordo, something that the other so-called Ecclesia Dei communities dare not do: "If they started to ask these questions, a commissioner would be sent to them tomorrow and they would be closed."

He mentions three thriving parishes of the Fraternity of Saint Peter in France that were closed by the bishops, despite appeals to the Holy See being unsuccessful.

Bishop Schneider prays for the miracle of Pope Leo XIV granting permission for the episcopal consecrations on July 1.

This would be "the first step towards integration" and create a more trusting atmosphere.

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