INTERVIEW WITH MSGR. SCHNEIDER PART ONE - THE COMMUNION
The reform of the reform promoted by the Supreme Pontiff is a work that progresses slowly failing for the time found the necessary support for the episcopal hierarchy. Despite this, some prelates have been thrown with enthusiasm and obedience in the promotion of the new liturgical movement by Pope Benedict. We are pleased to offer this week the first part of a meeting with one of these exclusive, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Karaganda in Kazakhstan, author of "Dominus Est, Reflections of a Bishop of Central Asia on Holy Communion , "published in 2008 by Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
1) Your Excellency, first of all, it can introduce the religious order to which it belongs: the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, also known as the Canons of Coimbra?
Archbishop Athanasius Schneider: It was Don Tello and St. Teotoneo, the first saint of Portugal, to create order in 1131 in Coimbra. Founded it with ten other men, choosing to follow the rule of St. Augustine and putting himself under the double protection of the Holy Cross and Immaculate Conception. The order experienced a rapid growth.
Portuguese by birth, including St. Anthony of Padua, before moving to the Franciscans, belonged to the order. In 1834 the Portuguese government closed religious orders. For the Church, however, an order shall not lapse until 100 years after the death of its last member. After Vatican II, was the first in Portugal to seek to revive the order. The relaunch was approved in 1979 by a decree of the Holy See, signed by the then Archbishop Augustin Mayer, Secretary of the Congregation for Religious.
The order is dedicated to the veneration of the Holy Cross and of angels, in close liaison with the work pursued by Opus Angelorum. Born in Austria in 1949, Opus Angelorum gave birth in 1961 the Brotherhood of the Holy Guardian Angels grouped with the vocation of the Brothers of the Cross. " The founder of Opus Angelorum, a humble housewife Austria Bitterlich Gabrielle, wanted to bring spiritual help to the priests and participate in the atonement for the priests through the practice of Eucharistic Adoration.
Opus Angelorum has been the subject of several interventions of the Holy See to clarify the operation and became in the end, in 2007, the Third Order of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross.
The order of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross has 80 priests for 140 members and is present in Europe, America and Asia.
ordering the Mass celebrated according to the Novus Ordo, however, versus Deum and giving communion in the traditional way, what the Holy Father has shown in his ceremonies: Communion in the mouth on the faithful, kneeling. This is perpetuated also the memory of the founder of Opus Angelorum who suffered much for the generalization of the communion in the hand.
2) E 'was this particular respect for the Eucharist, Excellency, for pushing her to join the order?
AS: Yes, You should know that for 12 years, the first of my life, I lived under the tyranny of Soviet communism. I grew up in the love of Jesus in the Eucharist with my mother who was a "woman of the Eucharist." One of those pious women who guarded the consecrated Host to preclude committed sacrilege when priests were arrested or put under investigation by the authorities.
So when we arrived in Germany in 1973, I was shocked seeing as it was the communion in church. I remember saying to my mother, seeing for the first time on the communion in the hand: "Mummy, but it's like when you distribute the candy to school!"
Later, when I think I have the vocation to the priesthood, I tried a way that would allow me also to be the guardian of Jesus in the Host, in my opinion. Providence would have it was during the years of the revival of the Canons of the Holy Cross ...
3) Since his election in the very year of the Eucharist, Benedict XVI has often affirmed the real presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. He has also taken over from the feast of Corpus Christi in 2008 the practice of calling communion on the tongue to kneeling faithful. Affected by this example papal many priests, often among younger people, they begin to doubt the merits of general communion in the hand, more restraint by some as one of the greatest damage of the liturgical reform.
His book, Dominus Est, addresses precisely this issue. According to her, we can say, as Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith in the preface of his book, Communion in the hand that has lead to a loss of faith, the faithful of the clergy, in the real presence of Christ and, consequently, a lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament? We refer to the movement of Tabernacles in the dark corners of churches, the faithful who do not genuflect more before the Blessed Sacrament, the sacrilegious communions, etc..
AS: Let me first say that I think we can take communion with great reverence also receiving the Eucharist in the hand. In its most common and widespread, however, where the sacredness seems to be forgotten either by the Minister by the faithful, I must admit that Communion in the hand contributes to a weakening of faith and worship the Lord in the Eucharist. And in this sense are in full agreement with the observations of HE Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith.
Some things they do understand:
- There is no guarantee of protection of our Lord in its smaller fragments. I suffer the loss of fragments of the Eucharist, now widespread because of the almost universal practice of Communion in the hand. E 'can I say, such a neglect, which over time leads to a decrease and even a lack of faith in Transubstantiation?
- Communion in the hand strongly encourages the theft of the Eucharistic species. They are committed sacrilege so true that we should never allow.
- The moving of the tabernacle, also does not help the centrality of the Eucharist, even for educational purposes: it must always be visible to the central place where you are repairing our Lord Jesus Christ.
4) Although it has been possible only by a special pardon the beginning, the way we communicate has become a standard in hand, almost a dogma, in most dioceses. Why such a development?
AS: This situation is set with all the features of a fashion and I also suspect that its spread is also due to a real strategy. The practice of communion in the hand has spread with the effect of an avalanche. I wonder: are we so insensitive to not recognize the sublime holiness of the Eucharistic species, the living Christ among us with His Divine Majesty?
5) For the moment, few bishops have decided to imitate the Holy Father and to give communion in the traditional way. As a result many priests are reluctant to follow the Pope in your view, this is the usual resistance conservative (not touching the "leftovers" of Vatican II) or, what was almost worse, a lack of interest in the topic?
AS: We can not judge intentions, but an observation outer leaves us thinking that there is a reluctance, or at least a disregard for the most sacred and safer to receive communion. One gets the impression that some of the pastors in the Church pretends not to see what that brings forward the Pope: Eucharist a teaching and practical.
