The word “excommunication” is well known in modern culture, but what exactly is it? Under current Catholic canon law, excommunication (which translates literally as “out of communion”), is the most severe penalty in the Church. When a person is excommunicated from the Church, they are unable to participate in communion or any other spiritual benefits until they repent, but this is never a vindictive penalty. The excommunicated person is highly encouraged to attend Mass (without receiving communion) and to pray consistently, since the ecclesiastical authorities would never want to harm another person’s relationship with God. Instead, excommunication is used as a “medicinal” censure, and its ultimate goal is to lead the excommunicated person back into the Church’s fold.
Contrary to popular belief, a baptism can never be undone, and a person can never be forced to stop being a Christian. Excommunication by the bishop makes the person in question a “stranger” in the eyes of the Church after they have committed a grave offense. As such, they cannot be acknowledged by the ecclesiastical authorities, but must still follow the spiritual requirements of the Church (attending Mass, praying consistently, and repenting for their actions). Following their repentance, they are allowed back into full communion with the Church. During their exile, a person cannot receive the sacraments or participate in the liturgy (e.g. they can’t bring up the gifts during Mass or distribute the Eucharist) and cannot exercise any act of spiritual authority if they are a part of the clergy. Excommunication is a form of “tough love” to help individuals avoid straying away from God, and not a terrible, irreversible punishment for their sins.
Excommunication has changed somewhat over the years, but the initial concept has remained the same. The process has biblical origins, mainly mentioned in Matthew 18:17, when referring to one brother who sins against another: “If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” However, the rules of excommunication came about in the early Church as the most severe form of ecclesiastical censure against those not in the clergy, as it remains today. Sts. John and Paul also refer to the process of removing an unrepentant sinner from the sacraments in order to keep these sacraments holy and to ultimately help bring the sinner back to God.
How does excommunication happen? The most common form is automatic excommunication upon performing an excommunicable offense. When the offense comes to light, there is no canonical process that must be undergone to make the excommunication official. These are often private excommunications, and the burden is applied to the person at fault to confess and properly repent. However, there is also a form of “judicial review” excommunication that takes place with a trial, and, if the person at fault is found guilty of excommunicable offenses, the sentence is officially applied and, normally, announced to the public. While the list of excommunicable offenses via trial is relatively long, those that warrant automatic excommunication are included below:
The 1983 Code of Canon Law attaches the penalty of automatic excommunication to the following actions:
- Apostasy, heresy, and schism
- Desecration of the Eucharist
- Physically attacking the pope
- For a priest: the granting of absolution to a partner with whom they have violated the sixth commandment
- For a bishop: the consecration of another bishop without papal mandate
- For a priest: violation the seal of the confessional
- Procuring an abortion
- Acting as an accomplice to an action that has an automatic excommunication penalty
Featured image courtesy of Tim Pierce via Flickr
Grant is a senior studying Information Systems at the Carroll School of Management. He keeps busy by studying and writing for The Torch.
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