Vatican City – Among this morning’s audiences, Pope Leo XIV received H.E.R. Msgr. Athanasius Schneider, Titular Bishop of Celerina and Auxiliary of Mary Most Holy in Astana (Kazakhstan).
The audience carries a weight that goes beyond normal practice: for years, Schneider has been known as one of the most critical voices regarding several lines of the previous pontificate, especially on liturgy, doctrine, and the approach to interreligious dialogue. In particular, he has been publicly identified as a representative of the traditionalist sphere and as a challenger of certain choices and formulations associated with Pope Francis.
A complicated relationship, but not a rupture
Schneider has certainly taken hard and repeated positions against various decisions and directions of the previous pontificate, but it would be misleading to reduce everything to a simple personal rupture. This is shown by the fact that, over time, institutional contacts have not been lacking: in a 2025 audience with Francis, Schneider himself reported cordial tones and the request to pray for the Pope. Precisely this ambivalence makes today’s meeting particularly significant: it is not “the photo of reconciliation,” but rather the signal that the new pontificate intends to keep channels open even with polarizing interlocutors.
That said, there is a point that pains the Pope himself: some figures - such as Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Sarah, and others - may also offer analyses that are at times understandable, but they often end up being exploited by far-right circles or by deviant traditionalist groups, who use every stance as an identity cudgel, fueling fan bases and making the climate unbearable within the Church.
Who is Msgr. Athanasius Schneider?
Born in 1961, formed in a religious context and later made a bishop in Central Asia, Schneider has stood out for the defense of pre-conciliar liturgical practices and for very clear public interventions on doctrinal and disciplinary matters, with severe judgments toward what he considers ambiguities or concessions of the contemporary Church.
In this context, Leo XIV’s choice to receive him today should be read above all as a message of method: to listen, without turning differences into media excommunications or into opposing blocs. The audience, in other words, does not amount to an endorsement of Schneider’s positions; it does, however, indicate a governing priority: to bring the confrontation back within institutional tracks, removing it from the permanent brawl among Catholic “factions.”
The gesture lends itself to a double reading. On the one hand, it appears as a sign of attention toward those traditionalist circles that in recent years have felt pushed to the margins. On the other, it says something more structural: the desire to mend the Church’s internal fabric not through media operations, but through a line of governance made of meetings, in which direct dialogue becomes central again, even when it is uncomfortable and complex.
p.L.C.
Silere non possum