Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, has publicly thanked Bishop Athanasius Schneider for recounting, during his lecture at the Catholic Identity Conference in Pittsburgh, how the Chinese prelate sang the Gregorian introit “Exsurge” to a cardinal in Rome who remained unmoved by an issue of importance to the Church.
The message from Cardinal Zen, posted on the social media platform X, links to a video of the lecture 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 prelate.
The lecture in question was the keynote address at the 2026 Catholic Identity Conference, organized by the American weekly The Remnant and held from October 2 to 4 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Schneider, an auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, spoke under the title “Christ’s Victory over the Hostile Takeover Within the Church.”
The cardinal’s favourite introit
Schneider was discussing the Gospel scene of the boat tossed by a storm while Christ sleeps when he recalled a conversation he had had “many years ago” in Hong Kong. Knowing of Zen’s love for the traditional Mass and Gregorian chant, he asked him which piece he liked best. “The introit for Sexagesima Sunday,” the cardinal replied.
The bishop admits that he could not remember the words by heart. Zen noticed and began singing it “with great devotion”: “Exsurge, quare obdormis, Domine? Exsurge, Domine, adjuva nos, et libera nos” (“Awake, why are you sleeping, O Lord? Arise, O Lord, help us and deliver us”). He also pointed out that the melody gives particular emphasis to the word exsurge.
The text comes from Psalm 43, according to the Vulgate numbering, and opens the Mass for Sexagesima Sunday, the second of the three Sundays preceding Lent in the traditional Roman calendar. The season of Septuagesima was removed from the general calendar in the 1969 reform and is retained in the 1962 Missal.
“Awake! Why are you sleeping?”
The second part of the story is what Schneider describes as amusing. Zen told him that on one occasion he had tried to make a cardinal in Rome understand an issue of importance to the Church. When his interlocutor proved “stubborn and unmoved,” Zen began singing the same introit to him: “Exsurge, quare obdormis, Domine? Exsurge!”—which the bishop translates as “Awake! Why are you sleeping? Arise!”
Neither Schneider nor Zen identifies the cardinal or gives a date for the episode.
An “unprecedented” crisis, in Schneider’s view
The anecdote is part of a speech in which the prelate argues that the Church is undergoing an “unprecedented” crisis affecting doctrine, morals, 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. This is the bishop’s personal assessment, expressed at a conference.
Alongside this criticism, Schneider urges the faithful not to give in to anger, bitterness, or discouragement. He reminds them that the Church is indestructible and proposes that they “wake the Lord” through prayer, sacrifices, and acts of reparation.
The passage shared by Zen also includes a notable line from the lecture: “The Pope and the bishops are not, in fact, the masters or authors of the faith; they must instead be its faithful and conscientious guardians, defenders, and lovers.” The cardinal adds no comment of his own beyond his thanks.