Tag: lay

Worshippers at a Mass organised by the Society of Saint Pius X in Switzerland on Wednesday

Vatican: Followers of Global Catholic Sect [Society of St Pius X] Excommunicated! (3.7.2026)

More recently, efforts had been made to reconcile with the SSPX, but the Vatican’s response to this week’s events was more aggressive than before, and more severe than predicted.

It was widely expected that Wednesday’s event in Geneva would lead to excommunication of the bishops involved.

But the excommunication of all those lay people who continue to be a part of SSPX was a surprise to many, with the traditionalist group now as far from the centre of power of the Roman Catholic Church as it has ever been.

Excommunication is one of the harshest punishments that can be given by the Church, effectively expelling the offender from the religion and excluding them from Catholic life.

It means a baptised follower is “out of communion” with the Church – meaning they cannot receive the sacraments, for example going to confession, or get married within the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican said on Thursday: “The sacred ministers of the Society of St Pius X administer the sacraments illicitly, while the sacrament of penance they administer and the marriages they witness are invalid.”

It means SSPX members now have to choose whether to stay part of a group that is in “schism”, or leave behind the things they believe are right in order to stay part of the Catholic Church.

However it is clear that many SSPX members believe it is the Vatican that has moved away from true doctrine, not them.

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St Albans Abeey - Grounds

St Albans Abbey: Clock-Tower & Exterior Structure! (29.5.2024)

Ordinary peasants and aristocracy would get out of bed in the morning, work, eat, rest and go to bed at night according to the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church – the monasteries of which usually followed the Rule of St Benedict – or some similar Rule. Ordinary people did not have to learn how to tell the time – as the monastic orders told them what to do and when to d it. Following the “Dissolution” – secular society had to build their own clocks and learn to tell the time for themselves. This is how the measuring of “time” was rescued from the control of the Church. After 1539 – time no longer served God – but rather the lay-society that paid for and possessed the technical skills to construct the clocks! The policies of King Henry VIII – as mad as he may or may not have been (he had around 70,000 men and women hanged during his reign) – ushered the “modern” Britain that we now live within. I doubt, however, that Henry would have envisioned the end of absolute monarchy or the trivialising of the Church!

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China: Gansu Buddhist ‘Smile of the Orient’ Said to Equal That of the ‘Mona Lisa’! (5.9.2023)

The early Buddhist groups in China mirrored that of the extant Confucian scholiastic system – often forming around married laymen – with disciples taking the surname of the teacher as their ‘Dharma-Name’ and essentially becoming an extension of his family. Grottoes such as that featured below were places where Buddhists could meet, share and practice their understanding of Indian Buddhist philosophy. An understanding of Buddhist monasticism started to arrive and distinguish itself in China from the existing lay-practice around the 5th century CE – the date I believe this ‘smiling’ monk appears to date from. Whereas Buddhist lay-practitioners did not shave their heads (like Daoists and Confucians) – monastic Buddhists (male and female) were required to shave their heads – indicative of their ‘rejecting’ of the desire-laden conventions that define, guide and justify the external world.

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