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Bishop Athanasius Schneider speaks with LifeSiteNews on October 24, 2019.Claire Chretien / LifeSiteNews

November 4, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Bishop Athanasius Schneider, the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, has granted LifeSiteNews a lengthy video interview about the Amazon Synod and the state of the Catholic Church.

Bishop Schneider is one of the most outspoken defenders of Catholic orthodoxy in the world. It was Bishop Schneider who, along with Cardinal Raymond Burke and other prelates, issued in June 2019 the “Declaration of Truths” to correct the rampant “doctrinal confusion” in the Church. Bishop Schneider has been at the forefront of defending the Catholic faith amidst the accelerating crisis in the Church during which bishops, cardinals, and even the Pope have either openly flouted or at least muddied Catholic teaching on a host of moral issues.

In his interview with LifeSiteNews, recorded on October 24 – the feast day of St. Raphael the Archangel – Bishop Schneider explained how the Amazon Synod was being used as a “tool” to change the Church and create “a new kind of religion, even.”

He reacted to Bishop Erwin Kräutler’s claim that indigenous peoples of the Amazon “don’t understand celibacy” – “without [a] doubt, this is racism,” said Bishop Schneider – and commented on attempts to undermine the practice of priestly celibacy and introduce female “deacons.” 

In this wide-ranging interview, Bishop Schneider also spoke about the liturgy, the significance of the cassock, and life as a Catholic child in the Soviet Union.