Athanasius Schneider

His Excellency
Athanasius Schneider
O.R.C.
Auxiliary bishop of Maria Santissima in Astana

Bishop Schneider celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass in Tallinn, Estonia
Diocese Mary Most Holy in Astana
See Celerina
Appointed 5 February 2011
Other posts Titular bishop of Celerina
Orders
Ordination 25 March 1990
by Manuel Pestana Filho
Consecration 2 June 2006
by Angelo Cardinal Sodano
Personal details
Born April 7, 1961
Tokmok, Kirghiz SSR, Soviet Union (present day Kyrgyzstan)
Nationality Kyrgyz
Denomination Roman Catholic
Previous post Auxiliary bishop of Karaganda
Motto Kyrie eleison
Coat of arms {{{coat_of_arms_alt}}}
Styles of
Athanasius Schneider
Reference style The Right Reverend
Spoken style My Lord
Religious style Monsignor
Posthumous style none

Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C. (born Anton Schneider on 7 April 1961) is a Roman Catholic bishop who is the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan and titular bishop of Celerina. He is a member of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra.

Biography

Anton Schneider was born in Tokmok, Kirghiz SSR in the Soviet Union. In 1973, shortly after making his first Holy Communion by the hand of Bl. Oleksa Zaryckyj, priest and martyr, he left with his family for Germany. When he joined the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra, a Catholic religious order, he was given the religious name Athanasius. He was ordained a priest on 25 March 1990. Starting in 1999, he taught Patristics at Mary, Mother of the Church Seminary in Karaganda. On 2 June 2006 he was consecrated Bishop at the Altar of the Chair of Saint Peter in the Vatican by Angelo Cardinal Sodano. In 2011 he was transferred to the position of auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Astana.[1] He is the General Secretary of the Bishops' Conference of Kazakhstan.[2]

Dominus est

Bishop Schneider defends the traditional form of receiving Holy Communion (kneeling, on the tongue) in Catholic liturgy.[3] This is the theme of his book Dominus est,[4] published in Italian, and since translated into English, German, Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish, Hungarian and Chinese. The book contains a foreword written by Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, then the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the current Archbishop of Colombo and Metropolitan head of the church in Sri Lanka.

Bishop Schneider encourages Catholics who truly believe they are receiving Christ in the Blessed Sacrament should kneel and receive Communion on their tongues: "The awareness of the greatness of the eucharistic mystery is demonstrated in a special way by the manner in which the body of the Lord is distributed and received".[5]

English liturgical scholar and commentator Alcuin Reid wrote in a review of Dominus est in The Catholic Herald: "Bishop Athanasius Schneider, a patristic scholar, appointed a bishop by Pope Benedict in 2006, has raised his voice in prophetic call for the western Church to recall the importance, if not the necessity, of returning to the previous discipline of the reception of Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue."[6]

Currently in the Catholic Church in many dioceses with the consent of the Holy See, the practice of standing and receiving communion on the hand is permitted.

Call for a papal document on Vatican II

At a theological conference in Rome in December 2010, Bishop Schneider proposed the need for "a new Syllabus" (recalling the 1864 Syllabus of Errors), in which papal teaching authority would correct erroneous interpretations of the documents of the Second Vatican Council.[7][8][9]

References

  1. Catholic Hierarchy: Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C.. Retrieved 2009-12-11
  2. Diocesan Profiles Series: Diocese of Karaganda Retrieved 2010-02-21
  3. Catholic Culture: Historical argument favors Communion on the tongue. Retrieved 2009-12-11
  4. Dominus est - It Is the Lord: Reflections of a Bishop of Central Asia on Holy Communion (ISBN 978-0977884612)
  5. Vatican Newspaper Article Says Catholics Should Receive Communion Kneeling and on the Tongue. Retrieved 2010-02-21
  6. The Catholic Herald: The little book that will cause a great storm. Retrieved 2009-12-11
  7. "Bishop calls for new document correcting misinterpretations of Vatican II". Catholic Culture (Catholic World News). January 21, 2011.
  8. In Caelo et in Terra: "Bishop Schneider speaks again, this time on Vatican II" January 27, 2011
  9. EWTN:"Proposals for a Correct Reading of the Second Vatican Council" by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, ORC Given at a conference of cardinals and bishops held in Rome, December 17, 2010

External links

Published Books