About Me

Jesus loves us. I love Jesus. My name is Fr Matthew P. Schneider, LC 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.

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. In relation to 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 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 50,000 followers. You can read more about me here.

I’m currently writing my doctoral thesis in Moral Theology through Regina Apostolorum in Rome while living in the Legionary community in the diocese of Arlington (Northern Virginia). On the side, I do some behind-the-scenes stuff for my community, post inspirational stuff and Catholic commentary online (including this), help with sacraments at local parishes, and occasionally talk publicly on subjects I discuss here (use the contact form if you want this).

I started with this personal blog, then joined ProjectYM, then Catholic Stand with a few individual articles for other pages. Now, as of April 2018, I’ve moved here to Patheos Catholic although occasionally I write elsewhere. 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 if you became a monthly patron on Patreon or donated on my Acceptiva page. Patheos pays a little bit but not much.

Along with my writing here, I have written for or appeared in over 250 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, Nova et Vetera, Homiletic & Pastoral Review, Aleteia, ZENIT, and NeuroClastic.
• I have appeared in several EWTN shows, Catholic Answers Live, multiple Catholic radio stations, Catholic News Agency, Catholic Herald, the Associated Press, the Huffington Post, National Review, Christianity Today, Slate, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, The Washington Times, CBS News, The Hill, Fox Business, 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 managed to find a few photos beyond my headshot.