Bishop Athanasius Schneider: What is the essence of the mission of the Catholic Church

The essence of the Church’s mission coincides with the mission of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of God, the Second individual of the Holy Trinity, who became a man and confessed: “For this I was born, and for this I came into the planet to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the fact listens to my voice” (Jn 18,37). And so the Church of all times and in all times spoke and should say the same: "To this end Christ, the Eternal Truth, founded me and to this end I lived and will live in this world--to bear witness to the truth." In these words the pope, all bishop and priest of our time should speak. Indeed, in our time almost everywhere the war against revealed fact of God and against the Church's first mission to preach it is burning and spreading. A small over a century ago, Pope Pius X presented us with a realistic view of universal indifference as a characteristic feature of modernity. The following is an appropriate view presented by this saint The Pope has full application to our times:

“[This] sacrilege war... is now, almost everywhere, aroused and incited against God. For indeed “the nations are rebellious, the peoples are plotting vain ideas” (Ps 2:1) against their Creator, so frequently is the cry of God’s enemies: “Get distant from us” (Hi 21:14). And as expected, we find that among most people all respect for the Eternal God has expired, and in the manifestations of public and private life there is no respect for the Most advanced Will – no, all effort and all deception is applied to destruct all memory and cognition of God... We will never be able to call people back to the majesty and kingdom of God, unless through Jesus Christ. "No one," exhorts us, "can lay no foundation another than that which is laid, and which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 3,11) It is only Christ, whom the Father consecrated and sent into this world" (John 10:36), "is the reflection of His glory and the reflection of His being" (Heb. 1.3), the actual God and the actual man: without whom no man can know God with the cognition of salvation, "No man knoweth the Father, but the Son, and he whom the boy will reveal." (Mt 11:27.) It follows that the renewal of all things in Christ and the bringing back of men to surrender to God is 1 and the same goal... The times in which we live require action—but the actions which consist solely in obeying with faithfulness and zeal the laws of God and the commandments of the Church, on the sincere and open confession of religion, on the performance of all kinds of charitable works, without looking at selfishness or earthly benefits. specified shining examples given by the large army of Christ's soldiers will be much more useful in moving and attracting people than words and sublime orations. erstwhile the law of the Lord is faithfully observed in all city and village, erstwhile respect for holy things is shown, erstwhile the sacraments come and the orders of Christian life are fulfilled... it besides contributes mostly to the temporal prosperity and power of human society... for all it will be clear that the Church, as established by Christ, must enjoy full freedom and independency from all abroad rule. (E supremi, 4 October 1903, 4; 8; 14)’.

Cardinal Louis Pie, the large nineteenth-century bishop and believer of Catholic religion in France, has left us the following crucial and timely call to defender against mortal indifference: the main spiritual illness of our times, and at the same time to fight it with the spiritual means which God has given us in His holy Church:

“When you are doomed to the triumph of evil, you should never praise it, you should never say evil: you are good; you should never say decadence: you are progress; never say night: you are light; you should never say to death: you are life. Sanctify yourselves at the time erstwhile God has placed you; mourn the evil and transgressions which God tolerates; defy them the energy of your deeds and your efforts, all your life free of errors and evil works, that after life on earth you may be 1 of the Spirits of the Lord, that you may be allowed to be 1 of the Lord, for as St. Paul said, "He that joins the Lord is 1 spirit with him" (1 Cor 6:17). (From the last sermon of Cardinal Pie, Bishop of Poitiers, 18 May 1880)".

This work by Eric Sammons entitled “Killing Indifference. How has the Church lost its mission and how can we recover it?” is simply a valuable tool to open our eyes to the actual condition of spiritual illness in the life of the Church, which must be rightly diagnosed as a deadly indifference to revealed and unchanging truths. At the same time, the merit of this book is to show the actual spirit of supernatural love and respect for the Church, an attitude that should lead anyone profoundly afraid and unwilling simply to admit the undeniable fact of the spiritual pandemic raging in the life of the Church. In this sense, the following words of Eric Sammons are instructive and encouraging: “Any criticism of Catholics towards the pope or council should be spoken with caution and humility. Nobody wants to criticize their mother; they want the planet to always be the way it was erstwhile you were a small kid, where Mom was always right and omniscient. But that is not possible in this fallen world. We should not like the criticism of the leaders of the Church, but we must sometimes do so so that the Church can fulfill its glorious mission." May this book have broad and beneficial scope and grace in the minds and hearts of its readers, for in it, as St. Augustine says, "instead of triumph is truth; alternatively of advanced rank, holiness; alternatively of peace, happiness; alternatively of life, eternity."

+ Athanasius Schneider

Auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana

The text is an introduction to Eric Sammons' book “Killing Indifference”, 3House 2023.