What is the teaching of the catholic church on excommunication? Who can excommunicate a person? What are the grounds for excommunication? can a person who was excommunicated go back to the catholic church?How and who decides?

thank you very much!

-- janeiro (janeiro_a@rocketmail.com), March 23, 2004

Answers

Janeiro,

This doesn't directly answer you question (completely), but I had just read it so I thought I would share it with you. It's from Catholic Answers. --------- Anathema

Like many, Chick does not understand what the term anathema means. He thinks that it means "damned as a heretic."[41] Elsewhere he uses "damned as a heretic" in place of the word anathema.[42]

But this is not what the term means. In Catholic documents the term refers to a kind of excommunication. By the time of the Council of Trent (which Chick faults for using it), it referred to an excommunication done with a special ceremony. Thus when Trent says things like "If anyone says . . . let him be anathema," it means that the person can be excommunicated with the ceremony. It also did not apply to Protestants since they were not part of the Catholic Church. Only someone who is part of the Catholic Church can be excommunicated from it.

The purpose of excommunication is not to damn a person but to bring him to repentance—the same principle Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Corinthians 2:5–10.

Further, though ordinary excommunication still exists, the ceremonial form of excommunication (anathema) does not exist. The 1983 Code of Canon Law ended the penalty. Thus, while one can still be excommunicated for holding beliefs against the Catholic faith, one cannot be anathematized.

-- Hollis (junk@nomail.com), March 23, 2004.

janeiro, go to this site:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05678a.htm

to learn about excommunition as it deals with:

- General Notions & Historical Summary

- Kinds of Excommunications

- Who Can Excommunicate

- Who Can Be Excommunicated

- Effects of Excommunication

- Absolution From Excommunication

- Excommunications Now in Force

-- Ed (catholic4444@yahoo.ca), March 24, 2004.

Janeiro,

The Catholic Encyclopedia article that Ed posted was written almost one hundred years ago, and some things have changed since then. The one change in particular that I am aware of is that there are many fewer latae sententiae excommunications now in force in the 1983 Code of Canon Law then there were back then.

-- Mark (aujus_1066@yahoo.com), March 24, 2004.

janeiro, mark is correct, sorry about that. Didn't mean to mislead you, but thought the general information supplied therein was what you were looking for.

-- Ed (catholic4444@yahoo.ca), March 24, 2004.

Ed,

I should have explained that the Catholic Encyclopedia article is an excellent overview of the topic of excommunication, as Church teaching doesn't (and indeed can't) change all that much. But just for the record, here are the current grounds for excommunication:

Canon 1364 §1: An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication, without prejudice to the provision of Canon 194 §1, n. 2; a cleric, moreover, may be punished with the penalties mentioned in Canon 1336 §1, nn. 1, 2 and 3.

Canon 1367: One who throws away the consecrated species or, for a sacrilegious purpose, takes them away or keeps them, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; a cleric, moreover, may be punished with some other penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.

Canon 1370 §1: A person who uses physical force against the Roman Pontiff incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; if the offender is a cleric, another penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state, may be added according to the gravity of the crime.

Canon 1378 §1: A priest who acts against the prescription of Canon 977 incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.

Canon 977: The absolution of a partner in a sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue is invalid, except in danger of death.

Canon 1382: Both the Bishop who, without a pontifical mandate, consecrates a person a Bishop, and the one who receives the consecration from him, incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.

Canon 1388: §1 A confessor who directly violates the sacramental seal, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; he who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the offence.

§2 Interpreters and the others mentioned in canon 983 §2, who violate the secret, are to be punished with a just penalty, not excluding excommunication.

Canon 1398: A person who actually procures an abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.

Canon 1329 §2: In the case of a latae sententiae penalty attached to an offence, accomplices, even though not mentioned in the law or precept, incur the same penalty if, without their assistance, the crime would not have been committed, and if the penalty is of such a nature as to be able to affect them; otherwise, they can be punished with ferendae sententiae penalties.

NOTE: Mitigating factors for latae sententiae excommunication are found in canons 1323 and 1324.

-- Mark (aujus_1066@yahoo.com), March 24, 2004.