It is clear from the beginning of the documentary that all of the faithful prelates interviewed are waging a war against heresy and misunderstanding of what the Catholic Church is.
(LifeSiteNews) -- In a new documentary, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Bishop Joseph Strickland, and Bishop Athanasius Schneider all present reflections on the four defining marks of the Church: one, holy, apostolic, and Catholic.
Credo is a 75-minute film directed by Polish journalist Krystian Kratiuk featuring interviews with Müller, Strickland, Schneider, and a Cistercian monk (and beekeeper) named Jan Paweł Strumiłowski. The documentary, filmed in locations as far apart as central Poland and Astana, Kazakhstan, appeared on YouTube in December in two versions: English and Polish. (In the English version, Müller’s German and Strumiłowski’s Polish are translated with a voiceover; in the Polish version, footnotes are provided for the German- and English-speaking prelates.)
Both versions are available in their entirety.
The film features beautiful footage – the sight of Bishop Schneider traveling through his diocese of Astana is particularly moving – and traditional sacred music to support the orthodox presentations by the faithful prelates and monk. Nevertheless, the film never descends into sentimentality; it is clear from the beginning that all the men interviewed are waging a war against heresy and misunderstanding of what the Catholic Church is.
Bishop Strickland is particularly forthright and clearly not afraid to ruffle episcopal feathers in his defense of the authentic Catholic faith.
“[W]e’re in a time when too many of the present-day successors of the apostles are saying, ‘Oh, we can abandon what the apostles said, and we've got it figured out, and we're going to take a different path. And what was sin is no longer sin; what was true is no longer true.’ That’s not apostolic,” he says firmly.
“To be apostolic ... is to be rooted in the tradition and history of the apostles, and as Pope Benedict XVI said beautifully, we need a continuity of faith and not a rupture,” he continues.
I think we're seeing a lot of that rupture, that is, breaking away and saying, "We're going to leave behind what the apostles taught, and the tradition that has carried us through these 20 centuries. In the 21st century, we're going to leave that behind. We found a new way. We understand it better than they did of old." That is an arrogance that is really harmful, and it's not what the Church is about. We have to humbly look back to the apostles. I like to say we need to be first century Christians in the 21st century. And that is being apostolic Christians.
READ: Cardinal Müller: ‘Pastoral’ attitude severed from Church doctrine is the root of our crisis
Kratiuk told LifeSiteNews that with his film he wants to counter voices in the world that try to convince Catholics that, because some priests sin and “hypocrisy abounds,” the Church is bad.
“We agree that the Church is in crisis, perhaps the biggest in its history. But we still believe in the Church, as enshrined in our confession of faith,” he stated over email.
The prominent Polish journalist and author said that Credo is about this enduring faith in the Church, “showing what the Church is and what it is not, contrary to the propaganda of modernity.”
“We show what it means to be the Mystical Body of Christ, and that the Church is much more than a charity or an agency for peace and prosperity,” he added.
Kratiuk mentioned his trip to Kazakhstan as the “most important challenge” for him during the production of the film. There, he said, Bishop Schneider showed him and his team “what it means to be a bishop.”
“To see Bishop Schneider among the Kazakh steppes, walking with the Blessed Sacrament in a tiny village, and then to hear his important words recorded in the cathedral he built in Karaganda was something truly remarkable,” he said.
Kratiuk thinks that the universality of the Church, beautifully illustrated in the film by people around the world singing the Nicene Creed in Latin, was exemplified by his visit to Bishop Schneider.
“Here is a German bishop born in Kyrgyzstan ministering in Kazakhstan to people of different nationalities and appearing speaking English in a film created by Polish journalists: Could there be greater proof of the universality of the Church? “
READ: Bishop Strickland: Pope Francis has repeatedly undermined ‘clarity’ of the First Commandment
The film is obviously of great interest for faithful Catholics, given the contributions of the three illustrious – and headline-making – prelates, and Kratiuk told LifeSiteNews that it was an honor to make it.
“It was a great honor for me to direct the film Credo, the only documentary of its kind, featuring such great authorities, each of whom is somehow sidelined from the Church today. But despite this (relegation to the margins), none of them has lost faith in the Church,” he said.
“We hope that this same faith will be strengthened or regained by our viewers because we constantly believe in the one, holy, universal and apostolic Church.”
