Christus Vincit: ''The Tribulation of those Days - Good Soil''

Our two sister blog-sites are still busy on a daily basis with ongoing projects: Deo Gratias.

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The Life of Christ Our Lord will incorporate J-J Tissot's incredible art-work to illustrate the Gospel accounts.

Detailed notes make extensive use of the Great Commentary by Cornelius A Lapide. Maps, diagrams and other notes are also included.

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A second, older site was developed as a showcase for a remarkable Rosary dating back to pre-Reformation, Catholic England, celebrated throughout Christendom as Mary's Dowry. Apart from the superb  verse and art-work, materials are posted to the blog on a daily basis.

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As time permits, I aim to include a series of posts here by way of reviewing an outstanding book I finished reading a couple of weeks ago and which is supremely suited for the calamitous times in which we find ourselves.

Angelico Press, 2019 

''In this absorbing interview, Bishop Athanasius Schneider offers a candid, incisive examination of controversies raging in the Church and the most pressing issues of our times, providing clarity and hope for beleaguered Catholics. He addresses such topics as widespread doctrinal confusion, the limits of papal authority, the documents of Vatican II, the Society of St. Pius X, anti-Christian ideologies and political threats, the third secret of Fatima, the traditional Roman rite, and the Amazon Synod, among many others. Like his fourth-century patron, St. Athanasius the Great, Bishop Schneider says things that others won’t, fearlessly following St. Paul’s advice: “Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching” (2 Tim 4:2). His insights into the challenges facing Christ’s flock today are essential reading for those who are, or wish to be, alert to the signs of the times.'' [From the Angelico Press website]



Christus Vincit is a book-length interview based upon a series of question and answer sessions conducted by Diana Montagna, a journalist who is currently Rome correspondent for Lifesite News. She provides a summary of Bishop Schneider's life in her Introduction:

 Black Sea, R. Volga,  Astana & Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan. [Wikicommons, Public Domain]

''Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of St. Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan: Born Antonius Schneider on April 7, 1961, in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan (USSR), Bishop Schneider’s early years were spent in the Soviet underground church, before emigrating with his family to Germany. 

In 1982, he entered in Austria the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, originally founded in Coimbra. He was ordained to the priesthood on March 25, 1990. 


Appointed to the episcopate by Pope Benedict XVI, in June 2006, at the age of 45, he was consecrated a bishop in St. Peter’s Basilica.''

Divided into twenty chapters, with an Appendix, the book immediately seizes the reader's attention in the opening pages with an account of his family ancestry amongst the Black Sea Germans from Alsace-Lorraine. They were devout Catholics and suffered dreadful tribulations under the Communist tyranny which spread like a dreadful plague across Holy Mother Russia. In the diocese created for Germans in South Ukraine:

''there were over two hundred German priests from this diocese. What’s beautiful is that no one apostatized. Not one. Almost all of the two hundred priests from the diocese, with the exception of a few priests, were killed or imprisoned.''

As the Second World War drew nearer, the atrocities increased:

''The horrible years were in Stalin’s time from 1936 to 1938, which are called the Dark Years, the terror years, though Stalin cynically called these years the time of purification. It was a purgation, a 'cleansing,' Stalin said. The Communists killed primarily priests, wealthy people, and intellectuals, all of whom were seen as potential enemies. There was a genocide, and what’s incredible is that history is almost silent about this. In these two years, Stalin killed millions upon millions of innocent people—his own people, not foreigners. It is a proven historical fact.''

Bishop Schneider's paternal grandfather was taken away and murdered, leaving his grandmother as a widow aged twenty-five with two sons aged seven and two. His grandmother lived seventy-four years as a widow, dying aged ninety-nine. Her prayer life was altogether remarkable:

''She would pray at least three hours in the morning. Then she did her work, and then she stopped and prayed an hour. Then in the afternoon, and in the evening, she prayed three hours.''

His grandfather on his mother's side was also killed, by a stray Luftwaffe bomb,  leaving his grandmother as a widow with seven children. The Germans occupied this part of Ukraine and evacuated the Russian Germans to East Germany as they retreated before the Red Army. There were around 300,000 of them and they were all later rounded up by the Communists and taken back to Soviet territory in cattle trucks. His mother and father, yet to meet, were exiled to a work camp in the Ural Mountains. Thousands died in the sub-zero temperatures. Even girls had to do a full day's work once they turned sixteen.

How did these Catholics retain their faith?

''Unfortunately, they had to go ten years, more or less, with no priests. But the families transmitted the faith, and every day they prayed. For example, in Lent, on Fridays in the evening after this hard work, neighboring families came together and prayed the Stations of the Cross in a room. Even after an exhausting day, they prayed the Stations of the Cross in Lent.''

Bishop Schneider describes a concentration camp in the Kazakhstan gulag, reputed to be one of the very worst. A holy priest, Fr Oleksiy, made quite superhuman efforts to bring the sacraments to poor souls scattered in this and other camps.

''At night he heard confessions, because they were ten years without a priest. He would celebrate Mass and give Holy Communion and so on. Sometimes he would go two days without eating, because people came continuously—thousands of Germans who were Catholics. They came secretly to confess.''

Even in the 1960s, the anti-Christian oppression was still in force. When Fr Oleksiy came to Kyrgystan to say Mass for Bishop Schneider's parents, he had to do so in total secrecy. Little Antonius was only one year old when he made this, his début as an altar-boy!

In the next post, we shall be looking at Bishop Schneider's boyhood and God's call to him.


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