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Bishop Athanasius Schneider speaks to the Lepanto Foundation Sept. 20, 2020.Fondazione Lepanto / Youtube

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ROME, September 22, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Athanasius Schneider called on faithful Catholics to be “militant Christians” who are unafraid to “shine like bright stars in the midst of the darkness and of our perverted generation.” 

“We have to be confident Christ is in our work, that He is the conqueror, and not be intimidated by these signs of the loss of the supernatural,” Bishop Schneider said in a message of encouragement recorded from Rome..

Bishop Schneider, who is an auxiliary bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan, was interviewed by Professor Roberto de Mattei at a Lepanto Foundation conference in Rome focused on ‘the supernatural spirit in a secularized society.’

“First I would like to greet all the good friends of the Lepanto Foundation in the United States and I would like to encourage you to continue this beautiful true Christian spirit of the militant Christian,” he began. 

“This is the characteristic of the Church on earth – to be a militant Church and not to have fear.”

Bishop Schneider said that Catholics must not be intimidated by the signs of the loss of the supernatural in society, but that they are called to be for the world “what the soul is for the body” and “to shine like bright stars in the midst of the darkness and of our perverted generation.” 

“I would like to transmit you this message of encouragement and to ask you that everyone in his place contribute to spread more the supernatural,”  Schneider said.

The Lepanto Foundation in Rome in an organization founded in order to defend the Church and Christian civilization. It takes its name from the 1571 Battle of Lepanto when Christian naval forces overcame an invading Turkish fleet and prevented an Islamic takeover of Europe, despite having been significantly outnumbered. In the weeks before the battle Pope St Pius V called for the Catholic faithful to pray the rosary for victory. The date of the victory, October 7, was first made a feast of Our Lady of Victory and subsequently of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with Pope St Pius V attributing the victory to the intercession of Our Lady and the power of the Rosary.