Vatican II

Excommunications

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

The Vatican announced on July 2, 2026, that Pope Leo XIV had formally excommunicated The Society of Saint Pius X, their priests, bishops, and congregants. SSPX was founded in 1970 in response to the reforms put forth by the Vatican II Council. They embrace an ultra-traditionalist approach to Catholicism, retaining the pre-Vatican II Latin mass while eschewing modern reform and contemporary teachings of the Church.

I’m not sure if this is spite, hypocrisy, or an observation of poetic justice, but I for one, am glad that the Church is finally taking a stand against ultra-traditionalists like the SSPX.  I applaud Pope Leo XIV for his bold action in this regard. For too long, the Church has looked away, even taken the side of ultra-traditionalists, when they have pitted themselves against both ordinary Catholics, and those who specifically embrace the reforms of Vatican II, along with other Church teachings that have espoused a more universal and ecumenical understanding of Catholicism (catholic literally means universal).

Speaking as a post-Vatican II Catholic who attended nearly 12 years of Catholic school and who completed my ministry training and spiritual director training through the Catholic Church, and worked in the Church for ten years, I have been a personal witness to the short-sighted, ill-informed, and harmful actions of ultra-traditionalists. Armed with little more than their felt-sense of superiority (they consider themselves the TRUE believers) I have seen them destroy entire congregations. One such group of ultra-traditionalists attacked our parish during a deeply vulnerable time, turning a loving and peaceful community of 1500 Catholics (in the widest sense meaning “universal) into an angry group of 25 apologists.

This same group of ultra-traditionalists brought their own form of the inquisition to my door, accusing me of sorcery, simony (I had to look that up), and doing the work of the devil, simply because I was fulfilling Jesus’ commandment of healing the sick. They eventually got the local bishop on their side, which further trickled up to the United States Council of Catholic Bishops who issued a prohibition of the specific kind of healing I was offering (Reiki).

In my experience, ultra-traditionalists are (or can be) dangerous. They DO NOT know the fullness of Catholic teaching, yet with this limited knowledge they have proven themselves adept at sowing seeds of discord and undermining the authority and confidence of Church leadership (an ordained priest or bishop should never bow to the pressure of a fearful few).

In excommunicating the SSPX, Pope Leo XIV is reminding all Catholics, priests and bishops included, that the Church is more inclusive and the teachings more universal than the fearful few would want us to believe.

Addendum: In no way shape or form to I claim to know the full extent of Catholic teach, neither am I institutionally devout. I do not believe Catholicism holds a monopoly on the truth. I am not a fan of the hierarchy or the clericalism that defines it. I personally believe Jesus never intended on starting a religion and while I don’t believe the pope is the sole representative of Christ on earth, I respect the role given to him within the context of the institution he has been empowered to lead.

God: I Have Questions! (Part 1)

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Straight Talk About God Part 1

In this series, I’m going to explore the topic of “God.” As a spiritual woman rooted in science and reason, I can’t help but question that thing that some call “God,” or rather, human beings’ creation of the “God” to whom they assign all kinds of images and meanings – based more on human behavior than on God Itself. This series will address these questions, not for the sake of providing proof of God or even an answer into the nature of God, but instead, to provide support for those like me whose lives have caused them to question what they were once told they must believe.

In the Catholic religion in which I was raised, God was a mystery and yet the Church, through doctrine and dogma, provided its own beliefs about God. As a post-Vatican II Catholic, my first lessons about the nature of God were all about love.  God was Love. God loved us without condition. God was all-loving and loved every single human being wholly and equally. This unconditional love, however, was also tempered with the caveat that God did love Catholics more than those of other faiths. Additionally, while being all-loving, God was punitive, jealous and wrathful. More than God’s love, we were taught to attend to God’s judgment. Breaking one of the ten commandments or sinning against the Church would earn you an eternity in hell, or if you were lucky, an extended stay in purgatory. If you were extra lucky, you had loved ones praying for your soul’s release from purgatory so that you could enjoy an eternity in heaven (that special heaven reserved only for Catholics) that much quicker.

As you can imagine, these conflicting images of God created a fair bit of cognitive dissonance in me, and I would guess, in most Catholics. Is God loving or is God punitive? Exploring scripture didn’t help the matter. The Old Testament God was wrathful, played favorites and destroyed those who were not His chosen ones. The New Testament God was equally confusing. Was God Love, as John’s letters suggested, unconditionally forgiving like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, or did he separate sheep from goats and cast hulls into the fiery pits of hell? The Church only compounded this confusion by heaping conditions upon God’s love. Only IF we were a Catholic in “good standing,” and free from sin could we enjoy God’s heavenly reward. Further, freedom from sin was dependent upon full participation in the sacraments. Everything, it seemed, was conditional, including your own membership and participation in the Church. Sinners weren’t welcome. The divorced were shunned. Those “living in sin” were condemned. And single persons (who didn’t choose vowed religious life) were held in contempt.

At the end of the day, God was a cause for confusion and depending on who you asked, their answers about God differed. From priest to priest, nun to nun, parent to parent, friend to friend, everyone had their own beliefs about God. What life has shown me, is that not a single one of them were correct. Here is where my reason steps in. How can any single human being comprehend the great mystery that is our origin in creation? How can anyone fathom the Source from which we came, assuming there is even a source. The scientific truth is that our planet, everything upon this earth, including humankind, could simply be a random mistake of nature. At some time in the distant past, the perfect grouping of particles came together and poof – we were made. Did some Divine hand orchestrate this creation or is it simply the workings of chance? These are the questions that come to my mind when pondering about God.