Word of the Day: Excommunication

EXCOMMUNICATION. An ecclesiastical censure by which one is more or less excluded from communion with the faithful. It is also called anathema, especially if it is inflicted with formal solemnities on persons notoriously obstinate to reconciliation. Two basic forms of excommunication are legislated by the Code of Canon Law, namely inflicted penalties (ferendae sententiae) and automatic penalties (latae sententiae). In the first type, a penalty does not bind until after it has been imposed on the guilty party. In the second type, the excommunication is incurred by the very commission of the offense, if the law or precept expressly determines this (Canon 1314). Most excommunications are of the second type. Among others identified by the new Code are the following:

"An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs automatic excommunication" (Canon 1364).

"A person who throws away the consecrated species or takes them or retains them for a sacrilegious purpose  incurs an automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See" (Canon 1367).

"A confessor who directly violates the seal of confession incurs an automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See" (Canon 1388).

"A person who procures a successful abortion incurs an automatic excommunication" (Canon 1398).

There are three principal effects of this penalty, so that "an excommunicated person is forbidden:

to have any ministerial participation in celebrating the Eucharistic Sacrifice or in any other ceremonies whatsoever of public worship

to celebrate the sacraments and sacramentals and to receive the sacraments

to discharge any ecclesiastical offices, ministries or functions whatsoever, or to place acts of governance"

(Canon 1331).