Our friends at The Remnant posted a video over the weekend offering 20 minutes of an interview Editor Michael Matt did with Bishop Athanasius Schneider before the recent Catholic Identity Conference. Although the full video is only available to those who have purchased an on-demand pass to the talks of the CIC, what is laid out here is nevertheless worth your time.

The bishop is unflinching in his opposition to communion for the divorced and remarried. He is as clear in his conviction that the pope has limits to his authority as he is in our duty to pray for him. He affirms that the acts of correction that have been published by cardinals, bishops, clergy and laymen are true acts of charity to the pope, and that those providing these corrections are the pope’s only true friends. He also admits that from the time of the Second Vatican Council, there was an attempted rupture with tradition, creating the impression that there was a new Church — “and this is contrary to the spirit of the apostles, and of Christ, and of the entire tradition. The Church is always the same. We cannot say “Now we start a new type of the Church.”

In another segment, dealing specifically with the problems presented by Pope Francis, Bishop Schneider says:

“[T]he pope cannot impose [on] us a wrong doctrine in his quality as…when he would speak ex cathedra — this is impossible, so, this is a dogma of faith, and…God will not permit this — otherwise, the gates of hell would prevail [against] the Church. But Our Lord said to Peter, ‘The Gates of hell will not prevail this rock’…I mean, the Holy See of Peter. Ultimately not. And so we have to believe in this, even when temporarily we are living in a darkness, and when temporarily the pope is not confirming us in the constant and unchanging truth of the Church, we have nevertheless to pray for him, and say, ‘I know…in Whom I believe. I know. I know the Catholic Faith.’ We have to be very sure and firm in our convictions.”

To hear a bishop speak so directly — but with authentic faith — on these matters is something you don’t want to miss.