VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Athanasius Schneider has urged Catholics to pray for Pope Francis that he might “retract” certain documents and statements that have “undermined the clarity” of the faith.
With Pope Francis having recently returned to the Vatican on Sunday after spending 38 days in the Gemelli hospital for bilateral pneumonia, many of his close supporters have welcomed what they say will be a new stage of his pontificate.
Speaking to Catholic radio host Joe McLane on Monday, Bishop Athanasius Schneider also called for a new stage in the pontificate, but one in which Francis might seek to “rectify” some of the “errors” that Schneider said he is responsible for spreading.
Schneider first urged prayers for the Pope, who is the father of a family, “because we have to keep always the supernatural view of the Church.”
Catholics, the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan said, should pray for Francis to receive necessary graces from God to “strengthen the entire Church in this last period of his pontificate.”
Explaining what this might look like, Schneider said:
That is to say that he may issue a document to restate the truth of the faith, regarding the errors which are most spread in our day in the Church, and to rectify some confusions and some ambiguities which were made in his pontificate and which he himself made, (and) so that he may have the strength, the humility, the wisdom to rectify, to retract some acts which he did in his pontificate, some documents, some words with which he made confusion and or undermined the clarity of the divine faith.
Such an action, Schneider said, should be Francis’ “first task” now that he has been discharged from hospital.
May the Lord give him the grace, the mercy that he could have still the possibility to rectify, to retract some necessary aspects of his pontificate. For this also we should pray fervently.
Issues of confusion and error abound today in the realms of human sexuality and marriage, the primacy of the Catholic faith, the sacraments, and the necessity of believing in God. But should Francis not correct these confusions, Schneider urged his successor in Rome to do so.
A new pope should also teach Catholic doctrine with regard to the impossibility of allowing the divorced and “remarried” to receive Holy Communion as well as the truth about homosexual blessings, Schneider said.
Schneider commented that a pope “must be the faithful servant, administrator of Christ, not of the spirit of this world, not of the fashion of this world.”
Pope Francis should “retract” the confusion he caused & some of the “errors” in the Church, Bishop Schneider told @JoeDMcClane
If not then his successor should retract “very ambiguous, erroneous documents & acts of PF’s pontificate”
Report on @LifeSitehttps://t.co/oLUH7xBUOv pic.twitter.com/311V3jghJ9— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) March 24, 2025
Should Francis die before issuing necessary doctrinal clarifications, then Schneider called for the next pope to prioritize performing “rectifications and retractions of very ambiguous, erroneous documents and acts of the pontificate of Pope Francis.”
Giving precise examples, Schneider called for a new pope to “make a profession of faith where he rectifies the errors – most important and widespread errors of our time,” first among which would be to proclaim Catholicism as the only true faith.
Next, he said, would come teaching on human sexuality, especially the “indissolubility of marriage, intrinsically evil character of sexual acts outside matrimony and especially to state clearly the intrinsically evil character of homosexual acts and lifestyle.”
He also cited Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia as needing to be “explicitly, namely retracted by the pope,” and for the “blasphemy” of Fiducia Supplicans, in which Francis permitted blessings for same-sex “couples,” to be completely retracted.
Schneider further called for the infamous 2019 Abu Dhabi document to be “clearly retracted” in order to preserve the authenticity of the Catholic faith, along with the synodal process and the recent three-year extension approved by Pope Francis.
The Kazakhstan-based bishop has emerged as one of the most vocal prelates during Pope Francis’ pontificate, issuing regular statements promoting traditional Catholic teaching in light of some of Francis’ more controversial texts and declarations.
Most recently, Schneider made a public response to a comment that has become one of Francis’ most controversial in his 12-year reign, namely his September 2024 comments about God and the plurality of religions.
READ: Pope Francis: ‘Every religion is a way to arrive at God’
Speaking to Raymond Arroyo, Schneider commented that “such an affirmation of Pope Francis is clearly against the divine revelation, it contradicts directly the first Commandment of God which is ever valid – ‘You shall not have other gods beside me’ – this is so clear, and such a statement contradicts the entire Gospel.”
Bishop Schneider responds to #PopeFrancis‘ claim that all religions are a way to arrive at God:
“Clearly against divine revelation. It contradicts the 1st Commandment of God… We have to pray for #PopeFrancis..to repent.”@WorldOverDC Sep 26.pic.twitter.com/BXfzerdqO7— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) September 26, 2024
During a German-language interview with LifeSiteNews journalist Andreas Wailzer recently, Schneider also urged Francis’ eventual successor to issue such a doctrinal clarification if Francis did not do so before his death.
Schneider urged that the next pope should iterate “the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of mankind, that Jesus Christ and the Church founded by Him are the only path to salvation intended by God.”