Catholic Bishop: Even the Third Reich did not prohibit public worship
The Catholic bishop believes that the Church is now going through times of persecution comparable to those of the Roman emperors.
Catholic Bishop Athanasius Schneider believes that the measures taken to combat the coronavirus are a political dictatorship, and even the Third Reich did not close temples. The bishop wrote about this on the pages of the Oneterfive.com online edition.
According to the bishop, "the current atmosphere of almost planetary panic is continuously fueled by the universally proclaimed ‘dogma’ of the new coronavirus pandemic."
"The drastic and disproportionate security measures with the denial of the fundamental human rights – freedom of movement, freedom of assembly and freedom of opinion – appear almost globally orchestrated in the world along a precise plan," the bishop assures.
Therefore, Schneider believes that "the entire human race becomes a kind of prisoner of a world ‘sanitary dictatorship’, which for its part also reveals itself as a political dictatorship."
He emphasizes that “an important side effect of this new ‘sanitary dictatorship’ that is spreading around the world is the growing and uncompromising ban on all forms of public worship.”
The bishop recalls that "beginning on March 16, 2020, the German government prohibited all forms of public religious gatherings for all religions."
According to him, "such a radical measure of a strict ban on all forms of public worship was unimaginable even during the Third Reich."
In addition, Schneider pointed out that "before these measures were taken in Germany, a governmentally ordered prohibition of any public worship was implemented in Italy and Rome, the heart of Catholicism and of Christianity."
He is sure that for this reason "the current situation with the ban on public worship in Rome brings the Church to the time of an analogous prohibition issued by pagan Roman emperors in the first centuries."
“Clerics who dare celebrate the Holy Mass in the presence of the faithful in such circumstances could be punished or imprisoned. The worldwide 'sanitary dictatorship' has created a situation which breathes the air of the catacombs, of a persecuted Church, of an underground Church, especially in Rome,” the hierarch writes.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that in many dioceses of the RCC around the world, religious processions with the Holy Communion began.