VIRGINIA, October 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, called the effort to force seven-year-old James Younger to undergo a gender “transition” a “horrible abuse of a child” that demonstrates the level of “barbarity” and “insanity” our “Western unbelieving society” has reached.

Speaking with LifeSiteNews about a variety of topics during his much anticipated trip to the eastern United States, Bishop Schneider, one of the most outspoken defenders of orthodoxy and reason in the Catholic Church, called the claiming of a right to force children to undergo so-called sex changes “one of the last steps of the gender dictatorship.” The James Younger case is being used as a tool of the “gender ideology dictatorship,” said the bishop.

“We can only hope that this father will win the process,” he said, but either way, we should pray for James, that he be allowed to reach adulthood unharmed.

“They are abusing a child who cannot ... decide for himself,” said Bishop Schneider. “To abuse him for their own — the ideologies of adults, of the depraved and even of this perverse gender ideology — it is, for me, a shame and a horrible abuse of a child.”

This case is an example of Western society’s “barbarity, really,” and “insanity,” he said. “And this is under the pretext of democracy and free society.”

“We have to join common forces of all people who have still common sense, even non-Christians, to make a coalition, [an] alliance, to defend common sense, to defend natural law, to defend the children in their ... natural being as boys and girls, and marriage and family,” urged Bishop Schneider. “This is our battle, for the sake, for the good of humanity.”

Several hours after Bishop Schneider made these comments to LifeSiteNews, a judge awarded James’s father, Jeffrey Younger, 50/50 custody with his ex-wife, pediatrician Anne Georgulas. Both parents must agree on all medical decisions for James and his twin, Jude, meaning their father will be able to intervene to stop the administration of puberty-blockers and later cross-sex hormones.

Bishop Schneider urged the use of “spiritual weapons,” like the rosary and calling on the “help of the holy angels,” in this battle.

The bishop’s parting words were a message of hope: “I think that in the midst of the darkness, we have to keep the conviction that we are the winners, really.”

“The Holy Scriptures said in the first epistle ... of St. John: this is the victory over the world, our faith,” he continued. “Our holy, Catholic, apostolic faith. And this will win, [because] Christ is King. He already won. He will win always. We are with Christ.”

Bishop Schneider also offered a blessing in Latin to LifeSite video viewers.

His full interview with LifeSiteNews, which will be released in the coming days, touched on a range of topics related to current events in the Catholic Church.

Follow all LifeSiteNews coverage of the James Younger case here.