Bishop Athanasius Schneider has held a private audience with Pope Leo XIV, which has been the first personal meeting between the two. After the meeting, held on Thursday, the prelate publicly expressed his gratitude to the Holy Father for the opportunity to dialogue on various proposals related to the spiritual good of the Church.
In exclusive statements given on December 18 to Diane Montagne, Monsignor Schneider explained that he wished to maintain confidentiality about the specific content of the meeting, although he emphasized the atmosphere of attention and understanding shown by the Pontiff. “I am deeply grateful to Pope Leo XIV for granting me a private audience, during which I was able to share several proposals oriented towards the spiritual good of the Church. I was impressed by the attention and understanding of the Holy Father,” he stated.
The auxiliary bishop of Astana also added an invitation to pray for the new Pontiff, asking that he “strengthen the faith and promote justice and peace in the liturgical life of the Church”.
A meeting marked by a common spiritual root
Although they come from very different contexts, Pope Leo XIV and Monsignor Schneider share a common spiritual heritage linked to the Augustinian tradition. The Pontiff, the first pope from the United States, is a member of the Order of Saint Augustine and was its prior general for two terms.
For his part, Monsignor Schneider, who grew up in the context of the clandestine Church under the Soviet regime and currently serves in Kazakhstan, belongs to the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra, an order that also follows the Rule of Saint Augustine. The bishop obtained his doctorate in patristics at the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome.
Both have also shared pastoral experiences in service to the poorest in South America: Pope Leo XIV during his missionary stage in Peru and Monsignor Schneider in Brazil.