ROME (LifeSiteNews) — Rome Life Forum attendees will be able to meet and speak to Bishop Athanasius Schneider this October. 

This autumn, from October 31 to November 1, Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan, will join Catholic leaders at the 2023 Rome Life Forum to discuss the evils of the Deep Church and Deep State and their involvement in the Great Reset agenda.  

The two-day strategy conference will be held immediately after the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality which threatens to formalize heretical teachings on the family. 

Growing up under a socialist regime 

Schneider was born in 1961 in Kyrgyzstan to a German family who worked in a Soviet labour camp. Schneider grew up under socialism where being a Catholic was illegal. However, Schneider’s family secretly held onto the faith and was closely involved in the underground church.  

Schneider’s mother, Maria, was one of several women who offered shelter to Blessed Oleksa Zaryckyj, a Ukrainian priest who was later martyred by the Soviet regime.  

When he was a young boy, Schneider and his family travelled sixty miles from the family’s home in Valga to Tartu to attend underground Masses. The family would take the first train in the morning under the cover of darkness and return with the last train at night to avoid being caught by Soviet authorities.   

In 1973, his family was released from the labour camp and emigrated to Germany where Schneider later joined the Order of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross in Austria. In 1990, he was ordained a priest in Brazil. 

He earned a doctorate in Patrology at the Augustinianum in Rome and taught at the seminary in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. In 2006, Schneider was ordained a bishop and appointed titular bishop of Celerina and auxiliary bishop of Karaganda.  

Beginning in 2011, Schneider served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Chairman of the Liturgical Commission, and Secretary General of the Conference of the Catholic Bishops of Kazakhstan.  

Schneider: A defender of the faith 

As a child, Schneider was taught to defend Catholicism from the Soviet regime, but now he works to preserve the True Faith from enemies within the Church.  

In recent years, Schneider has exposed unfaithful clergy within the Church for promoting division and restricting traditional Catholics from practicing their faith.  

Recently, Schneider joined LifeSite’s John-Henry Westen to defend the Catholic Church against rising globalist threats at the Vatican, the World Economic Forum, Deep State actors, and beyond. 

Having himself been raised under socialism, Schneider has repeatedly warned of Marxist propaganda being accepted and spread in the world and even within the Catholic Church. Schneider was not afraid to callout out high-ranking Church leaders for supporting ‘neo-Marxist’ LGBT ideology. 

Schneider also cautioned that current trends in the Catholic Church, especially the Synod on Synodality, are “dangerous” to the Catholic faith and are “spiritual poisons.” 

Additionally, Schneider is a staunch supporter of the Traditional Latin Mass, confirming that Catholics have the right to attend the ancient liturgy.  

“Non-compliance with the prohibitions of the traditional Mass does not make one, by that fact, schismatic, provided one continues to recognize the Pope and the bishops and continues to respect them, and pray for them,” he revealed.  

Despite the trials which the Church is undergoing, Schneider encouraged Catholics to keep up the good fight and not lose hope.  

“When you are living with God, in Christ, you are even joyful in the midst of the battle,” Schneider counselled. “And otherwise, your faith is weak. You have to deepen your Catholic faith, as the martyrs. They were joyful to be persecuted.” 

During the upcoming Rome Life Forum, Schneider will discuss the corruption of the Church, while offering a solution to restore the Church to its former glory.  

Conference attendees will have the opportunity to actively participate in all forum strategy sessions with our guest speakers. Other guest speakers include Cardinal Gerhard Müller, freedom activist Reggie Littlejohn, the president of the pro-life Women’s Rights without Frontiers, and LifeSite’s own John-Henry Westen, among others.   

The conference will take place in the four-star A. Roma LifeStyle Hotel. Off the beaten track, the hotel is nevertheless just a 30-minute bus ride from St. Peter’s Square. In addition, October and November are well-known to be part of Rome’s “off-season,” providing visitors with more space—and cooler temperatures—in which to make pilgrimages to the city’s spiritual and cultural treasures. 

Tickets are limited to 200, so be sure to secure your own today. For the latest information on this year’s Rome Life Forum, please visit RomeLifeForum.com