Christus Vincit: God calls

This is our second post on Bishop Athanasius Schneider's 2019 book, Christus Vincit. In his second chapter, the author gives us a glimpse of life for a devout Catholic family under a ferociously anti-Christian tyranny in the Soviet Union. The author reveals how pious his grandparents were and how devoted his parents were to the Eucharist. One of his fondest memories concerns family prayers on the Lord's day:

''On Sundays, we closed all the doors, drew the curtains, and knelt down—my parents with the four children—and we sanctified the day of the Lord because there was no priest, no Mass. We had to sanctify the day of the Lord, so in the morning we prayed the Rosary, a litany, prayers, and then we made our Spiritual Communion...''

It is a salutary reminder to many Catholics in the West to be deeply grateful for their opportunity to assist at Mass, even if in many places the old Mass may be difficult to find.  It is a warning but also an inspirational example of what to do if (or when) the current liberal and secular war in the west against Christ and His Church becomes more extensive and intrusive.

Bishop Schneider explains that in his boyhood, a priest might come every six months, sometimes once a year. There were even some years when his family had to go without Mass and Communion. Their faith burned brightly despite the enemy's attempts to snuff it out. He illustrates the determination of the faithful and the joy he felt with a reference to Christmas:

''On Christmas Eve all the Germans came to our house. I remember as a child, our house was full—some were even standing outside—and we were singing all the beautiful Christmas songs, all in German. The one which I most loved as a seven or eight-year-old child, and sang the next day, was Adeste fideles in German—'Kommt, lasset uns anbeten' ('O Come, All Ye Faithful').''

A significant milestone in his life-story came when in 1969 the family moved to Valga in Estonia when he was eight years old. This was to facilitate their hope of emigrating to Germany. They established that the nearest Catholic church was 100 kilometers away in Tartu. Going to Mass involved a train journey starting at six o'clock in the morning, returning that evening. His parents were delighted with this opportunity:

'' 'Oh, children, we are so happy! We have a church so close to us. Only 100 kilometers!' I remember this. 'So close to us. Only 100 kilometers!' We were all so happy.''

Bishop Schneider writes that this is one of the most beautiful memories of his life, these Sunday Mass trips.

At this point in the interview, his interlocutor referred to Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago and asked about the Karaganda gulag. Here is a summary of Bishop Schneider's response. The Karaganda gulag was known as the “Karlag”. The word “Gulag,” is an abbreviation for “Glávnoye Upravléniye Ispravítelno-trudovykh Lageréy” which is Russian for: “Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps”). The system reached its peak during Stalin’s rule from the 1930s to the 1950s. The Karlagcovered an area roughly equivalent to today’s France. Over one million people passed through the Karlag. The first were priests, religious ministers, intellectuals, nobility, officers, and peasants, labelled “enemies of the people” or “public enemies”. They were transported in cattle trucks from all over the Soviet Union to Kazakhstan.

Silver-thread embroidered antimensium 1540-60. Benaki Museum [Public domain]

Several hundred priests and religious died in the Karlag. Today, in the village of Dolinka, near the city of Karaganda, stands the Museum of the Memory of Victims of Political Repression.
The older people who experienced and still remember the terrible times of repression say that the soil around Karaganda is soaked with the tears and blood of countless innocent persons. Once the late Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, Alexij, when visiting Karaganda, said that the area of Karaganda can symbolically be described as an “antimension”—a kind of “corporal” in the Byzantine Rite, in which are sewn the relics of martyrs.

Celebrating Traditional Latin Mass in Tallinn, Estonia. 2010

Bishop Schneider concludes this second chapter with a story. He had recently made his First Holy Communion and he was making his way with his mother after Mass one day towards the priest's house. Out of curiosity, he asked his mother how one could become a priest. He was ten years old.  His mother stopped and sad to him: ''In order to become a priest, it is necessary that God calls.''

Two years later, the family emigrated to Germany. Before their departure, their priest blessed them and explained there were some churches where Communion was given in the hand. He asked them not to go to those churches. They did indeed find this practice was widespread:

''It was horrible for us: almost all of the people received Communion in the hand. And it was given quickly, with people standing in a line, like in a cafeteria.''

Marko Tervaportti [CC BY 3.0] 

Bishop Schneider completed his education in Germany, gaining fluency in literary German (he speaks six languages fluently). He attended Mass daily and frequently went to exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for silent adoration. He recalls that as a child he simply loved Our Lady.

At the end of his studies in the Gymnasium, he entered the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross in Austria. It was in 1982 that he began his novitiate, a step on the road to answering God's call. He was to be ordained on the feast of the Annunciation in 1990, in Brazil.


Christus Vincit is available from Angelico Press or for Kindle from Amazon.