Bishop Schneider: Priests do not have to obey bishops’ orders to suspend Mass over COVID-19

By David Martin

In response to Catholic bishops who are abusing their power by ordering the suspension of Masses over COVID-19, Bishop Athanasius Schneider has said that a priest, observing due prudence and following necessary health precautions, "has not to obey the directives of his bishop or the government to suspend Mass for the faithful."

He has also criticized episcopal orders forbidding priests from visiting the sick and dying. "Such a prohibition is an abuse of power. Christ did not give a bishop the power to forbid visiting the sick and dying. A true priest will do everything he can to visit a dying person."

Schneider laments how "the prevailing majority of bishops" have reacted "precipitously and out of panic in prohibiting all public Masses and – what is even more incomprehensible – in closing churches."

He says that "Such bishops” have "reacted more like civil bureaucrats than shepherds. In focusing too exclusively on all the hygienic protective measures, they have lost a supernatural vision and have abandoned the primacy of the eternal good of souls."

"A quasi-pathological fear has overcome common reason and a supernatural vision," He adds.

Bishop Schneider is certainly justified in what he says. It is an indictment of our times that supermarkets, liquor stores, abortion mills and transportation lines are allowed to operate while churches are required to shut down. Attending Mass is every bit as "essential" as these busy-body activities, so why have the churches been ordered locked? "One could guarantee in churches the same and even better hygienic protective measures,” the bishop said.

IT IS GOOD to finally hear a religious leader say the truth. The state, under no condition, may impose rules on the Church, so that if it does—either directly or through fallen bishops—priests need not obey. The rule is that when obedience is going to mean committing a sin or fault, one must not obey, and this applies to laity as well.

Note that it is deep-state socialists like Bernie Sanders and California governor Gavin Newsom who are pushing this COVID-19 lockdown, which is every reason to resist it. The bishops have a solemn duty to stand firm in defense of the Church and instead they are bowing to political deities that are using them to close down the church. It appears that persecuting humanity under the guise of "public health and safety" is what this Coronavirus fuss is all about.

Chastisement for Sin

In the final analysis, the COVID-19 crisis is a punishment for sin, especially those of the Church.

Note that it isn't Beijing or Hong Kong that have been the hardest hit with COVID-19, but the relatively small town of Bergamo, Italy (pop. 122,000), the epicenter of the epidemic, where over 600 people are dying each day from the virus.

Interestingly, it was the bishop and diocese of Bergamo that published the prayer to Pachamama on its website and that Pope Francis and his cardinals used in venerating the idol during the Amazonian Synod that convened Oct. 6-27.

Note too, that the Coronavirus first began infecting people in Wuhan just around the time when Francis and his cardinals were "praying" before the idol in Rome. It appears that Rome’s profanation of the temple is what spawned this plague!

Unfortunately, the Church is not responding to this chastisement. What God expects is for bishops and priests to open up the churches and go upon their knees, acknowledging sincerely that their manifold sins against the Faith—Communion in the hand, ecumenism, socializing in church, bowing to Pachamama, colluding with U.N. pro-abortion advocates, allowing women on the altar, appointing homosexuals to clerical positions—have brought this plague upon us. According to Bishop Schneider, the Eucharist has been trampled underfoot for the past fifty years though the pestilent practice of Communion in the hand.

Lenten Repentance Needed

Lent is a time to make amends, so a healthy amendment is for clergy and laity to make public reparation in the churches, confessing sincerely that they have offended by their modern-day attempts to change the Catholic Church. The present crisis is a wake-up call to either cleanse the Church of modernism or suffer a just punishment in the form of communist oppression and slavery.

Already, the storm clouds of Socialism are gathering, so this is no time to close the churches but to bring the people into the Church that they may be on their knees in reparation to God who is "much offended."

Bishop Schneider says that "A worldwide chain of monstrances carrying the Eucharistic Lord through the streets of this world could be launched. Such mini-Eucharistic processions, even if carried out only by a bishop or a priest alone, will implore graces of physical and spiritual healing and conversion."

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-schneider-priests-dont-have-to-obey-bishops-govt-who-suspend-mass-over-covid-19