Cardinal Joseph Zen, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, has publicly thanked Bishop Athanasius Schneider for recounting, in his address at the Catholic Identity Conference in Pittsburgh, how the Chinese cardinal sang the Gregorian introit “Exsurge” before a cardinal in Rome who remained impassive regarding a matter of importance to the Church.
The message from Cardinal Zen, shared on the social network X, links to the conference video and reproduces the passage in which Schneider speaks about him. “Thank you, Bishop Schneider, for sharing such an interesting anecdote and your reflections,” writes the 94-year-old cardinal.
The referenced intervention is the keynote address of the Catholic Identity Conference 2026, the congress organized by the American weekly The Remnant, held from October 2 to 4 in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana (Kazakhstan), spoke under the title “The Victory of Christ over the Hostile Takeover within the Church.”
The Cardinal’s Favorite Introit
Schneider was commenting on the Gospel scene of the boat shaken by the storm while Christ sleeps when he recalled a conversation held “many years ago” in Hong Kong. Knowing of Zen’s love for the traditional Mass and Gregorian chant, he asked him which piece was his favorite. “The introit of Sexagesima,” the cardinal replied.
The bishop admits he did not remember the text by heart. Zen noticed and began to sing it “with great unction”: “Exsurge, quare obdormis, Domine? Exsurge, Domine, adjuva nos, et libera nos” (“Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord? Arise, O Lord, help us and deliver us”). He also pointed out that the melody strikingly emphasizes the word exsurge.
The text comes from Psalm 43 according to the numbering of the Vulgate and opens the Mass of Sexagesima Sunday, the second of the three that precede Lent in the traditional Roman calendar. That period of Septuagesima disappeared from the general calendar with the 1969 reform and is preserved in the 1962 Missal.
“Awake! Why do you sleep?”
The second part of the account is the one Schneider describes as amusing. Zen told him that on one occasion he tried to make a cardinal in Rome understand a matter of importance to the Church. As his interlocutor remained “stubborn and impassive,” he began to sing the same introit to him: “Exsurge, quare obdormis, Domine? Exsurge!”, which the bishop translates as “Awake! Why do you sleep? Awake!”
Neither Schneider nor Zen identifies the cardinal or places the episode on a specific date.
An “Unprecedented” Crisis, in Schneider’s View
The anecdote is part of a speech in which the prelate maintains that the Church is going through an “unprecedented” crisis, extending to doctrine, morality, liturgy, and discipline. He describes it as a “hostile takeover” of strategic administrative positions, an expression that Cardinal Gerhard Müller once applied to the Synod on Synodality. It is a personal diagnosis by the bishop, formulated at a congress.
Alongside this denunciation, Schneider urges the faithful not to give in to anger, bitterness, or discouragement, reminds them that the Church is indestructible, and proposes “awakening the Lord” through prayer, sacrifices, and acts of reparation.
The passage reproduced by Zen also includes a highlighted phrase from the conference: “The Pope and the bishops are not, in fact, the lords or authors of the faith, but must be its faithful and scrupulous custodians, defenders, and lovers.” The cardinal adds no comment of his own beyond the expression of thanks.