A prominent bishop and promoter of the old rite has warned that “nothing is more dangerous” for religion than “interference with the liturgy”.
Visiting the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest in Limerick this weekend, Bishop Athanasius Schneider delivered a homily extolling the benefits of preserving the Church’s ancient liturgy and Tradition.
The Church, he noted, has always been committed to transmit, both “doctrinally and liturgically, her fidelity to sacred tradition.”
“True piety admits no other rule than that only those things which have been faithful received from our fathers, those same are to be faithful consigned to our children,” he observed. “It is our duty,” continued the auxiliary of Astana, “not to lead religion wherever we would, but rather to follow religion where it leads, and that it is the path of Christian modesty not to hand down our own beliefs or observances.”
Catholics must “preserve and keep what we have received from those who went before us”, he urged.
Schneider is well known for his forthright commentary regarding matters of the day, both in the Church and in civil society. A celebrant of both the new and old rite, he is recognised as one of the most prominent advocates of the traditional Mass in the Church today.
Drawing from numerous popes and liturgical commentaries over the centuries, Schneider noted that “public worship is inherently traditional”, emphasising that this entails practising the liturgy as it exists “according to the norms already established by divine authority and handed over by the ancestors.”
Making as his own the words of the expert liturgist Dom Propser Gueranger, Schneider commented how “every heretic or sectarian who wishes to introduce a new doctrine finds himself unfailingly face to face with the traditional liturgy, because liturgy is tradition, and the strongest and best tradition.”
The auxiliary of Astana has been a high-profile figure in recent months once again as he urged the Holy See to take a middle ground stance regarding the episcopal consecrations of the Society of Saint Pius X, and to grant them the mandate for the ceremony in order to prevent harm to the Church. Schneider was a former apostolic visitor to the SSPX for the Holy See during Pope Francis’ reign.
During his homily in Limerick, he critiqued any who argue against the traditional liturgy as being “something that might distract us or draw us away from the real theme of the liturgical mysteries to something superficial.”
On the contrary, said Schneider, individuals who “clamour that the Church is no museum and that the really pious man is indifferent to these accidentals [of the traditional liturgy] only show their blindness to the great role played by beautiful expression.”
Schneider met privately with Pope Leo XIV in December, urging him to address the liturgical upheaval inherited from his predecessor. Schneider suggested to Leo that he issue a document implementing a “regularisation of the entire issue of the traditional Latin Mass, again independently of the Motu Proprios.” Such a move “would really bring justice and peace to the Church”, he said.
No such papal move has yet arrived, but in light of the SSPX’s consecrations the discussion about the traditional liturgy has become ever more prominent and pressing. With increasing urgency, a growing number of prelates have now urged Leo to lift the restrictions on the traditional Mass if he values unity within the Church.
Echoing these sentiments, Schneider commented how “history has proved a thousand times that there is nothing more dangerous for a religion, nothing more likely to result in discontent, uncertainty, division and apostasy than interference with the liturgy and consequently with religious sensibility.”
“Preserving the precious treasure of the traditional liturgy is part of preserving the depositum fidei”, he continued, adding that the Church’s practice is that “antiquity was retained, novelty was rejected – this is the apostolic rule.”
Commenting previously on Pope Francis’ Latin Mass restrictions as contained in Traditionis Custodes, Schneider has described the text as “a persecution of a part of the faithful and also a rejection of the entire tradition of the liturgy of the Church.”
Reiterating that theme in Limerick, he noted that “the liturgy is Tradition in its most powerful and solemn form. Only the Catholic Church can say ‘I transmitted to you what I received from the Lord.’”
In recent days, an interview with Cardinal Arthur Roche was published, in which the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship attested that Leo XIV has no intention to ease Traditionis Custodes. Questions have since been raised about Roche’s claim, given that Leo recently instructed the French bishops to be generous and open to the old rite.
As yet though, no formal change in policy has emerged from the American pontiff.
Michael Haynes is an English journalist in the Holy See Press Corps. He serves as Vatican Correspondent for the Catholic Herald, while readers can follow him at Per Mariam and on X @MLJHaynes.
