Jesus loves us. I love Jesus. My name is Fr Matthew P. Schneider, LC SThD. I’m a priest with the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi. I try to fulfill our mission of helping people know and experience Jesus, be transformed by him, and become his apostles.
In 2022, I finished my doctoral thesis in Moral Theology through Regina Apostolorum in Rome, while living in the Legionary community in the diocese of Arlington (Northern Virginia) and as Assistant Chaplain at Divine Mercy University. For the 2022-2024 school years, I teach theology and bioethics at Belmont Abbey College. I occasionally give talks on subjects I discuss here (use the contact form if you want this).
Pauline Press published my book, God Loves the Autistic Mind: Prayer Guide for Those on the Spectrum and Those Who Love Us, in June 2022. You can get it here.
I am one of the few openly autistic priests. I was diagnosed with autism after my first year of ministry when I failed to read the emotions on kids’ faces as a school chaplain. I gave a longer testimony (with video) if you are interested.
Slowly I’ve become one of the biggest Catholic voices on Twitter with over 68,000 followers, and 100,000 across all social media combined.
I began working in youth ministry and wrote some of the material for the Conquest and Challenge Clubs, but in recent years I have moved away from that. Concerning youth ministry, I wrote the only book on doing 1-on-1 spiritual mentoring with teenagers called Spiritually Mentoring Teenage Boys based on my experience (90% of it probably applies to teen girls too, but I don’t have much experience there).
I started with this personal blog, then joined ProjectYM, then Catholic Stand, then Patheos, with a few individual articles for other pages. If you want my article to appear in your publication, please contact me and offer me your normal going rate for freelance journalists.
My Community relies on donations, and I’d love it if you became a monthly patron on Patreon or donated on my Acceptiva page. I have chosen not to run ads here except for links to Patreon.
Along with my writing here, I have written for or appeared in over 350 other media outlets. I have another page with a more complete list, but here are some highlights:
- I have written pieces appearing in the National Catholic Register, America, Crux, Public Discourse, Homiletic & Pastoral Review, Nova et Vetera, The Journal of Disability & Religion, The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Aleteia, ZENIT, ChurchPOP, Catholic Moral Theology, LifeNews.com, and NeuroClastic.
- I or my work has appeared in several EWTN shows, Catholic Answers Live, multiple Catholic radio stations, Catholic News Agency, CatholicTV, Catholic Herald, The Linacre Quarterly, The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Church Life Journal, The Associated Press, National Review, Christianity Today, Slate, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, CBS News, The Hill, CNN, Fox News, and The Guardian.
If you want to know what I look like, there isn’t much to see. Even though I’m not that photogenic, I found a few photos beyond my headshot.
Fr. Matthew, I just learned I had a celebrity (you) co-teaching ESL with me at Christ the Redeemer. I wish you great success with your new book, and the completion of your dissertation. Christus regnat!!
I think as a priest I should spend some of my time doing acts of Christian charity. I asked Catholic Charities what might work while I was in Ashburn, and they suggested teaching ESL at CTR. I try not to do it with big fanfare.
Fr. Can you help in how to get a possible diagnosis for autism in an older adult? Most information is related to children, and is not well understood by PCP. Thank you for your sharing and help.
Yes. It is a little harder to find a psychologist willing and able to do the tests for adult autism. There are some guides about it if you look for it and I can’t recommend any particular one: you can google them. Psychology Today has a directory where you can filter for those who both see adults and have autism as one of their specialties.
EDIT: Also to add, if you email the autism society of America (https://autismsociety.org) with your zip code, they can send you local psychologists. They do no filter just for adults, so you then need to call the handful they give you.
I am a 67yr old female living in Ontario, Canada, and the psychologist who diagnosed my adult ADHD 3 years ago referred me to Kevin Reinhardt in Newmarket, ON as the only professional he knows of specializing in diagnosing ASD in adults, and he also assesses for the common ASD comorbidities of ADHD, LD’s and the gammut of PD’s.I have my 2-1/2 day full comprehensive ASD assessment scheduled for next week, and he has been amazing in this lead-up period. He is registered with Psychology Today … hopefully, this info can be of help to fellow Ontarians!
Wow. This is great news for you. We live is the US in Massachusetts. Does your provider know anyone in this area. Thank you for your input.
Father Schneider – Thank you, thank you, thank you! As an older Catholic diagnosed later in life with ASD, your book explains so much. I always blamed myself and feared going to hell because I could not relate to the emotional, even ecstatic, experiences and faith expressions of so many Catholic saints. I therefore judged myself as having no love in me for God, even though I have always known intellectually that I love Him and He loves me, as odd and imperfect as I am. Your book opened a door of hope that maybe I am OK in God’s eyes as different as I am, because I try to live a good Catholic life, even while I don’t have all those religious feelings. May God bless you!
It’s great that the book has helped you out so much. I hope you keep growing in a deeper relationship with Jesus as an autistic.