During the ongoing 21st Conservative Congress, the presentation of the Fr Piotr Skarga Prize took place. There are awards, as stressed by Jan Więpaszalski, who nominate the winners, but there are besides winners who rise the prestige of the awards. This is the case this year erstwhile the statue with the bust of Peter Skargi was given to His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
The award was given by the president of the Association of Polonia Christian Sławomir Skiba. We give the full text of the laudation:
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are most pleased to announce that in this year's edition of the Award of the name of Fr Peter Complaint the Chapter decided to award this crucial discrimination for our environment to His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
His Excellency, Rev. Bishop Athanasius Schneider was born in 1961 in the russian Union in Kyrgyzstan, in a deported German household who emigrated to Germany in 1973. In 1990, he accepted priestly ordination at the Order of the Regular Canons of the Holy Cross. In 1997, he obtained a PhD in pathrology at the Augustinianum Pathistic Institute in Rome. In 2006, he became the titular bishop of Celerina and auxiliary bishop of Karaganda. Since 2011, he has been an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Astana (Kazakhstan). He is the Chair of the Liturgical Commission and the General Secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Kazakhstan.
In making its unanimous decision, the Jury of the Prize was guided by the desire to appreciate and thank His Excellency for the immense pastoral work and to strengthen Catholics in the religion not only in its diocese, but also, during many trips to smaller and larger communities, faithful spread around the planet on 5 continents. In times of confusion and apostasy on an unprecedented scale in history, in the era of doctrinal and disciplinary crisis in the interior of the Holy Catholic Church, you are the bishop of the unbreakable shepherd, faithful boy of the Church, and guardian of the Apostolic Tradition tirelessly defending the deposit of faith, the sanctity of the sacraments and the hierarchical order of the Catholic Church.
His Excellency is the author of books Christus Vincit. Christ’s Triumph over the Dark of Days, Catholic Mass, Corpus Christi and many statements and interviews specified as in the book The Spring of the Church That Didn't Come. In his books he defends especially the worship of the Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the conventional Holy Mass and the eternal teaching of the Church.
As a courageous successor to the apostles JE Fr. Bishop Athansius Schneider, guarding the truth, out of love for the Mystical Body of Christ, he “comes in time and in time” and following St. Paul's example of the fact he can reprove even during direct talks with the Pope, exhorting and preserving the son's devotion and actual concern for the Peter's Office and maintaining a relation with the Viceroy of Christ. With real concern for the souls, with the knowing and love of the shepherd of the Church, he can manifest mistake and call to prayer for the erring, to appeal to the souls of the individual faithful, the clergy, and the pope himself.
Excellency Bishop, in presenting this award, we thank you for your fatherly concern for all soul you encounter, a evidence of religion in the Holy Catholic Church, the defence of its doctrine and hierarchical order, and a deep desire to keep unity and relation with the successor of St Peter while remaining faithful to Christ and his Gospel.
May Your patron saint Atanasia the large – the Guardian of religion – invitation you to receive the graces needed for the next years of service to the Holy Church.
God bless you!
