The Vortex with Bishop Athanasius Schneider

In the July 12 Vortex, Michael Voris discussed his interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider concerning

…what he sees as some difficulties with the confusion surrounding some aspects of Vatican II. Not the Council itself, but the confusion that has arisen based on what he sees as a lack of precision in some of the language in the documents. In this, he echoes some of what Cardinal Kaspar said a couple of months ago when he said there was unclear language written into the Vatican II documents – what he called “compromise formulas” – that’s a quote from the Cardinal.

The Vortex episode contains some clips from the on-camera interview the bishop granted to CMTV, and the full 30-minute session is also available (and embedded below).

MV also recommends the bishop's book Dominus Est, available on Amazon. 

In addition, you can read the bishop’s 2010 paper, Proposals for a Correct Reading of the Second Vatican Council. And if you’re really ambitious, take a look at a response to that paper over at The Remant.

Here are some of the things Bishop Athanasius Schneider said in the interview:

…it is necessary to have an official interpretation that the Second Vatican Council had not the intention the finality to make a break with the past.

…there are some specific moments in the documents which need to be clarified because they are open to different interpretations…

Concerning the purpose of the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Schneider noted that Pope John XXIII, who called the council, said that it was

… to protect and to deepen. Not to make new doctrines. This is the key of the interpretation. The words of the Magisterium, not the interpretations of the theologians, and not even of some bishops.  

…[T]he pope has to pronounce has to give some clarifications or some indications of the misinterpretations because we have to be very, very concrete because we are living in a situation of much confusion.

So many voices speak about Council and so on and so we have to ask the Magisterium with humility to give us clear very clear interpretations of some specific subjects.  

Watch the Vortex for the “condensed” version, and then watch the entire interview. The more our shepherds keep saying these things, the more likely we will come to a deeper understanding of what happened at Vatican II, what Vatican II really said (and meant), and how misinterpretations have contributed to the current crisis in the Church. Only when the problem is faced and corrected can we expect the Church to rebound.




See the script here.

Here's the complete interview: