Article — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Article Two. On the Effects of Excommunication.
37. Some effects of excommunication are immediate, others mediate; nevertheless all these effects affect only those to be avoided. The immediate effects, by which the excommunicated are deprived of almost all rights which belong to members of the Church, are numbered as nine: excommunication deprives one of the passive use of the sacraments, the active use of the sacraments, the use of divine offices, the common suffrages of the Church, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, capacity for acquiring a benefice, ecclesiastical burial, forensic communication, and civil communication.
38. 1. It deprives one of the reception (passive use) of the sacraments.
a. An excommunicated person, whether tolerated or to be avoided, validly receives the sacraments, even penance: for the Church cannot render the excommunicated person unable validly to receive the sacraments.
a. If an excommunicated person approaches the sacrament of penance in bad faith, the absolution is invalid not because of the censure but because of defect of disposition; but if he approaches in good faith, the sacrament of penance is valid; for the confessor is not deprived of jurisdiction even if knowingly he absolves an excommunicated person, and the penitent is not incapable of absolution, even if the excommunication is reserved; nevertheless, with sins remitted, the excommunication remains, if it is reserved.1
b. The use of sacramentals is not prohibited to the excommunicated, but the prayers of the Church do not assist excommunicated persons using them: therefore they lack the fruit which comes from the prayers of the Church.
b. But neither an excommunicated tolerated person nor one to be avoided licitly receives the sacraments; wherefore one receiving them sins gravely, unless ignorance or fear of grave harm, whether spiritual or temporal, excuses.
a. Therefore an excommunicated person without an excusing cause can licitly receive no sacrament (not even penance), but when an excusing cause exists he can licitly receive all the sacraments (even the Eucharist).
b. From these things it is clear that not only can sacraments not be administered to excommunicated persons to be avoided before they have been absolved from excommunication, but neither to heretics or schismatics who, after the use of reason, publicly lived in a heretical or schismatic sect, before they have abjured heresy and professed the true faith.
1 Ballerini-Palmieri VII, n. 245 f.
39. 2. It deprives one of the administration (active use) of the sacraments, i.e. an excommunicated person, whether tolerated or to be avoided, cannot licitly administer the sacraments, and one to be avoided cannot even validly administer penance, because he lacks jurisdiction.
a. An excommunicated person to be avoided always administers the sacraments illicitly, unless someone is in the article of death and no other priest is present who may administer the sacraments to him (for in this case the Church supplies jurisdiction for the utility of the faithful), or unless he himself would suffer grave inconvenience, because the Church does not oblige with so great an inconvenience (danger of death, infamy, grave loss of goods).
In a case of necessity he licitly administers not only baptism and penance, but also the Eucharist and extreme unction, lest the dying person be deprived of so great a help. A parish priest to be avoided assists at marriage illicitly, but can licitly delegate another to assist.
b. An excommunicated tolerated person administers the sacraments illicitly if he, not asked, thrusts himself of his own accord into the administration; but if he is asked by the faithful, by reason of excommunication he licitly administers the sacraments, though he does this illicitly if he is in a state of sin.
Therefore when asked, indeed even rightly presuming that the faithful would ask (as if on a feast day there were not another priest present who would celebrate Mass), he can celebrate Mass. Nor do the faithful need a special reason in order to ask the sacraments from him, because communication with tolerated persons has been permitted to them.1
1 St. Alphonsus n. 169.
40. 3. It deprives one of the use of divine offices, i.e. an excommunicated person, whether tolerated or to be avoided, is prohibited under grave sin from attending divine offices in a notable part, unless the necessity of avoiding scandal or another grave inconvenience excuses.
a. Divine offices are to be understood as those which are performed by clerics as ministers of the Church, such as the sacrifice of the Mass, public prayer, procession, the chanting of hours, blessings which are publicly and solemnly done in church, such as the blessing of oil, candles, palms, the obsequies of the dead, etc.; but not those things which are done by private devotion, such as to pray, to venerate images or relics, etc.
a. Therefore an excommunicated person to be avoided can enter a church at a time when divine offices are not being celebrated and pray there privately, whether separately in a distinct place or even in the same place with others: for by praying privately he does not communicate with others. A priest to be avoided can recite the divine office privately and therefore is also bound to recite it; he can attend a sermon, etc.
b. Not only does an excommunicated person who attends divine offices sin, but also the other faithful who communicate with an excommunicated person to be avoided by assisting at the same divine office, e.g. the same Mass, commit sin, and indeed grave sin in grave matter.
b. This prohibition of itself affects a tolerated person and one to be avoided in an equal mode; but with respect to tolerated persons it seems today to have gone into desuetude. And indeed tolerated excommunicated persons assisting at divine offices do not think that they sin, nor do ecclesiastical superiors urge this prohibition; thus neither Freemasons nor heretics are prohibited from assisting at sacred rites.1
c. If an excommunicated person to be avoided attends a divine office, he must be admonished to leave; and if, after being admonished, he does not withdraw from the church, clerics are bound with the aid of lay persons to expel him if they can; if they cannot, then the faithful departing, they are bound to cease from the office.
If an excommunicated person to be avoided assists at Mass and cannot be expelled, the priest, the canon not yet having been begun, must break off the Mass; if he has already begun the canon, he can either break off the Mass or, the rest departing, continue it. If he has already consecrated, with the minister alone remaining, he must continue the sacrifice up to communion and complete the rest either in the sacristy or in another fitting place.
1 D'Annibale I, n. 362, note 19; Ballerini-Palmieri VII, n. 259.
41. 4. It deprives one of the common suffrages of the Church.1
Common and private suffrages are distinguished. Common or public suffrages are those which are done in the name of the Church by her ministers; private suffrages are those which are done in the proper name of the faithful. Therefore excommunicated persons, even if they are in the state of grace, are deprived of the fruits which come to the faithful from the sacrifice of the Mass, from recitation of the office, from the public prayers of the Church, and from indulgences. But private prayers can be made even for the excommunicated, and good works can be given to them.
Whether only those to be avoided or also tolerated persons are deprived of these suffrages is greatly disputed. The question, which chiefly refers to the sacrifice of the Mass and its application, seems to be solved in this way: occult tolerated excommunicated persons, who do not publicly adhere to a non-Catholic sect, are no longer deprived of the suffrages of the Church, from the time when it was conceded to the faithful to communicate with them even in divine matters; but public tolerated excommunicated persons, who publicly adhere to a non-Catholic sect (heretics and schismatics), are deprived of them.2
1 Cf. C. Si quem 59. C. Sacris 38. De sententia excom. (V. 39).
2 Cf. De sacramentis^3 n. 176.
42. 5. It deprives one of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, whose exercise indeed is a principal communication with the faithful.
An excommunicated person to be avoided exercises acts of jurisdiction illicitly and invalidly, except in the cases enumerated above (n. 39); but an excommunicated tolerated person, even a notorious one, exercises them validly, though he acts illicitly unless from a grave cause or when asked he exercises acts of jurisdiction.
a. Even an excommunicated person to be avoided validly assists at marriage, because this assistance is not an act of jurisdiction; likewise he validly gives another priest the power of assisting at marriage, because the concession of this power likewise is not an act of jurisdiction.
b. An excommunicated prelate validly receives a religious profession, because admission of profession is not properly an act of jurisdiction, but is the use of superiority which belongs to a prelate by reason of his office; otherwise neither a layman nor a woman could admit profession.1
1 Cf. Schmalzgrueber n. 167 ff.
43. 6. It deprives one of capacity for acquiring a benefice.
a. Hence the conferral of a benefice made to an excommunicated person, whether to be avoided or tolerated, is null, as are presentation, election, institution, confirmation: for an excommunicated person, even a tolerated one, cannot exercise an office, because he cannot communicate in office; but a benefice is given because of an office.
b. An excommunicated person likewise is by the law itself unable to obtain any rescripts of the holy see, whether of grace or of justice, which therefore will be null.1 Nevertheless if they have been conceded knowingly to an excommunicated person, or with absolution from censures premised, as is accustomed to happen, they are valid; this must also be understood of the conferral of a benefice, if absolution from censures is contained in it.
a. Therefore if a dispensation from an impediment of marriage is sought for an excommunicated person, the rescript of dispensation of the holy see (not likewise the rescript of dispensation of the bishop), whether it is conceded in gracious form or in commissory form, is null by the law itself. Now, for guarding against this nullity in apostolic rescripts, absolution from excommunication for the effect is accustomed to be appended (n. 27.e).
b. If this absolution in commissory form is committed to the delegate himself, the petitioner must first be absolved and afterward dispensed, in order that the dispensation be valid. This absolution does not take away the censure, but only one effect of the censure, while the censure itself remains with the other effects.
1 C. Dilectus 26. De rescriptis (I. 3). C. Ipso iure 1. De rescriptis (I. 3) in 6°.
44. 7. It deprives one of ecclesiastical burial, so that not even an excommunicated tolerated person, unless he is occult, can be buried in a sacred place; and if he has been buried in a sacred place, he must be taken out from there. Nevertheless there is a twofold distinction in this matter between one to be avoided and one tolerated:
a. If each gave signs of penance before death, the tolerated person can be buried in a sacred place, even if he is not absolved from excommunication; but it is fitting that he first be absolved. But one to be avoided cannot be buried in a sacred place unless he is first absolved.
b. If a tolerated person has been buried in a sacred place, he must be exhumed, but the sacred place is not thereby polluted; but if one to be avoided has been buried in a sacred place, he must be exhumed, and the sacred place is thereby polluted and needs expiation.
To the question how a parish priest ought to conduct himself if someone bound by censure has died, so that for this reason he ought to lack ecclesiastical burial, but if, by grave threats, obsequies and ecclesiastical burial itself are obstinately demanded, the Sacred Penitentiary responded on December 15, 1860: care must be taken that all things be done according to the norm of the sacred canons; but insofar as this cannot be obtained without danger of disturbances and scandal, the parish priest should in no way concur, either by himself or through other priests, in the obsequies and burial.1
1 Cf. Acta sanctae sedis I, p. 563, n. 21.
45. 8. It deprives one of forensic communication, or of every act pertaining to judgment, both in the ecclesiastical forum and in the civil forum. But in the civil forum this privation is no longer in force; in the ecclesiastical forum, however, an excommunicated person cannot be a judge, advocate, witness, tutor, executor of a will, etc.
Nevertheless the distinction between a tolerated person and one to be avoided must be attended to. A tolerated person acts not only validly, but also licitly if he is required; but one to be avoided always acts illicitly, indeed even the sentence of a judge to be avoided is invalid, because he lacks jurisdiction.
46. 9. It deprives one of civil communication, so that an excommunicated person of himself can neither contract with the rest of the faithful, nor have commerce, nor cohabit, nor converse familiarly, nor can the faithful do so with him.
An excommunicated tolerated person indeed cannot communicate with the faithful in divine and forensic matters unless he is required; but in civil matters from today's custom he can communicate even when not required1 (n. 35). Indeed, to recent authors (Lehmkuhl, Ballerini), this penalty even with respect to those to be avoided seems to have gone into desuetude. And indeed the causes excusing from this penalty, which are admitted by ancient authors, today have become so common that they exist for almost every excommunicated person; but a law ceases which now cannot commonly be observed, even if it can still be observed by some particular person.
1 Sacred Penitentiary, July 5, 1867.
47. Excusing causes, on account of which it is licit to communicate with one to be avoided in civil matters, are contained in this little verse:
Useful, law, humble, thing unknown, necessary;
These five loose anathema, lest it be able to harm.
a. Useful signifies the spiritual or temporal utility of the one communicating, of the excommunicated person, or of a third person, which cannot otherwise conveniently be procured.
Therefore it is licit to exact a debt from one to be avoided, to ask alms, to employ him as physician or advocate if another equally suitable cannot be had, to give him salutary counsels, etc.
b. Law signifies marriage, by force of which spouses, one or the other of whom is to be avoided, can communicate mutually, not only with respect to the conjugal debt, but also with respect to cohabitation, table, and domestic conversation.
c. Humble signifies subjection; therefore children can communicate with parents, servants with masters, subjects with superiors to be avoided.
d. Thing unknown signifies ignorance whether of law or of fact, provided it is not affected. In order that someone be prohibited from communicating with one to be avoided, he must know not only that the person is excommunicated, but also that he is to be avoided.
e. Necessary signifies any notable necessity, whether spiritual or corporal, of the one communicating, of the one to be avoided, or of a third person.
Note. This excusing cause is already contained in the first, except that according to the mind of some authors the temporal utility alone of one to be avoided does not excuse, but necessity is required; and therefore this fifth cause of temporal necessity has been added.
48. Mediate effects of excommunication are called those which arise not from excommunication itself, but from fault committed by the excommunicated person because of the excommunication. Three effects of this kind are chiefly numbered:
a. Irregularity, which arises from violation of the censure: for an excommunicated person who culpably exercises an act of sacred order becomes irregular.
b. Suspicion of heresy; one who through a whole year becomes filthy in excommunication, or persists contumaciously, incurs suspicion of heresy, because he is presumed to think badly concerning the power of the Church and concerning the sacraments, whose reception he omits.1
c. Privation of benefices, namely he who for a year perseveres contumaciously in excommunication must be deprived of ecclesiastical benefices, if the crime because of which he has been excommunicated deserves a privation of this kind.
49. What kind of sin it is to communicate with an excommunicated person. a. To communicate with an excommunicated person in divine matters is mortal, unless smallness of matter excuses.
b. To communicate with an excommunicated person in civil matters, even without a just cause, of itself does not exceed venial sin. Today, however, as is noted above (n. 46), it lacks all sin.
c. To communicate with an excommunicated person in criminal crime is a mortal sin. He is said to communicate with an excommunicated person in criminal crime who communicates with him in that very crime because of which he is excommunicated, by furnishing help or favor to him.
Thus if someone furnished help or favor to a person excommunicated because of retention of an ecclesiastical good, lest he restore the good of the Church, he would communicate with him in criminal crime.
Note. The constitution Apostolicae sedis itself divides the excommunications now in force into four series, the first of which contains excommunications reserved in a special mode to the Roman pontiff, the second excommunications reserved in an ordinary mode to the Roman pontiff, the third excommunications reserved to bishops, the fourth excommunications reserved to no one. The individual ones will be explained in this order, yet in such a way that those which more rarely occur will be explained briefly, and those which are more easily contracted by the faithful with a fuller pen.