PITTSBURGH (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Athanasius Schneider urged the faithful during a talk on Saturday not to bow to the modern idols that have crept into the Catholic Church such as LGBT ideology or the climate change agenda.
Speaking at the Catholic Identity Conference (CIC) in Pittsburgh on October 4, the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, emphasized that in a period when the First Commandment is often rejected even by the Church hierarchy, Catholics must cling to Our Lord Jesus Christ and not offer incense to modern idols such as political correctness, “Mother Earth,” icebergs, and the LGBT ideology. Schneider’s bold statement comes just over a month after the sacrilegious LGBT pilgrimage at the Vatican in early September that saw thousands of so-called “LGBT Catholics,” many with their same-sex “partners,” processing into St. Peter’s Basilica, and about a week after Pope Leo’s blessing of an iceberg during a Vatican “climate change” event.
Idol of ‘climate change’
“The First Commandment does not admit even the slightest ambiguity and vagueness. A Catholic can acknowledge only the worship of the Most Holy Trinity and of Christ the King, the Incarnated God. Therefore, a Catholic cannot participate even indirectly in any other religious cult,” the bishop said. “A Catholic cannot burn even the smallest grain of incense before the images of the new idols, for example, before the idol of a standard religion, before the idol of … public opinion, of political correctness before the idol of the so-called “Mother Earth” of the idol of climate change, of icebergs.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, during the Vatican’s “Raising Hope for Climate Justice” Conference at Castel Gandolfo in Italy last week, Pope Leo XIV blessed a block of ice from Greenland, raising eyebrows from several conservative Catholic commentators.
WATCH: Pope Leo blesses block of ice at Vatican ‘climate change’ event
During a press event ahead of the conference, pro-abortion and pro-LGBT actor and former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger also called on every Catholic around the world to “be a crusader for the environment.”
Pope Leo’s Vatican has thus far wholly embraced his predecessor Pope Francis’ focus on climate change and “care for creation,” having issued a votive Mass inspired by Laudato Si, and opened an ecological training center on the grounds of the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo.
Evils of LGBT ideology
Schneider continued, noting that many now identify as “LGBT Catholics” and stressed that the faithful also must never bend the knee to that ideology.
“(Catholics can not bow) before the idol of the so-called LGBT ideology or ‘community’ even, which even absorbs the name ‘LGBT Catholics, presenting followers of such ideology as (the) ‘Catholic LGBT community,’” he said. “While ‘LGBTQ’ organizations in theory and in fact are unrepentant and proud, denying the Sixth Commandment of God, justifying sexual acts outside a valid marriage, concretely justifying the sin of sodomy, fornication, and promoting a lifestyle which contradicts the divinely created order and beauty of nature and reason.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, in early September, a Vatican-approved LGBT pilgrimage for the jubilee year, organized by “La Tenda di Gionata” (“The Tent of Jonathan”), a pro-LGBT group that has falsely claimed that Scripture does not condemn homosexual relationships and joined by Father James Martin’s Outreach, saw more than 1,000 “LGBT pilgrims” visit the Vatican.
During the pilgrimage, the group led by a rainbow cross, many with their same-sex “partners,” dressed in rainbow colors with some waving “LGBT pride” flags, processed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. One photo showed an unidentified pilgrim wearing a backpack that said “F*** the rules.”
WATCH: Thousands of ‘LGBT Catholics’ process into St. Peter’s Basilica for Jubilee Year pilgrimage
Schneider told LifeSite that the LGBT pilgrimage was a “tragic” and “blasphemous” event that the faithful must make reparation for.
Reparation for Vatican ‘LGBT Catholic’ pilgrimage
“(The pilgrimage was) not only tragic, it was a blasphemous event in one of the most holy places of Christianity, which is the Basilica of St. Peter, the tomb of the Apostle St. Peter, and used as a promotion for legitimizing sodomy and other connotations with the tacit consent of the Holy See,” the bishop said. “This is so grievous that it cannot be left without asking God for forgiveness and reparation and expiation.”
Earlier in the conference, Schneider, along with Bishop Joseph Strickland, bishop emeritus of Tyler, Texas, Bishop Marian Eleganti, emeritus auxiliary bishop of Chur, Switzerland; and Bishop Robert Mutsaerts, auxiliary of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, led millions of faithful in person and virtually in praying an act of reparation for the “abomination” of the LGBT pilgrimage followed by the holy rosary.
Storm Heaven! Pray and share the full text of the Act of Reparation for the “LGBTQ+ Pilgrimage” in St. Peter’s Basilica, lead by Bishops Schneider, Strickland, Elenganti and Mutsaerts at the Catholic Identity Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, on October 4, 2025:
Act of Reparation… pic.twitter.com/oYirVZj2jc
— Michael J. Matt (@Michael_J_Matt) October 5, 2025
Schneider further emphasized to LifeSiteNews the importance of Pope Leo making reparation for the Vatican LGBT pilgrimage.
“We pray that God may give (Pope Leo) the light and the strength and the courage to do this,” he said.
Bishop Eleganti agreed, telling LifeSite that whenever a grave sin, let alone sacrilege in a holy place, occurs, reparation must be made to God.
“Reparation is important. God is justice and truth; He is not only mercy. (God doesn’t) take this wound and say, ‘Forget it, everything is alright.’” he said. “(Abomination) needs an equilibrium, because behind everything is God’s truth and His justice, so it needs reparation.”
“It would be a strange world if a murderer would not be punished. We have the feeling of justice that needs reparation, (so) he has to go to prison. If not, life cannot continue in the normal way,” he added. “(What happened in the Vatican was) a devastation, a desecralization, so it needs an expiation, and so I think it makes sense to make an act of reparation.”
Bishop Mutsaerts echoed those sentiments.
“When something grave happens, you have to make reparations, and that’s what we did,” he said.
