Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
§ 2. On The Effects Of Excommunication
The effects of excommunication are either immediate (direct) or mediate (indirect). We treat first a) the immediate and then b) the mediate effects.
500. a) The immediate effects are contained in the following verses:
Sacred things, rites, communion, crypt, power, Sacred revenues, forum, civil rights are forbidden.
- Sacred things are the sacraments, the administration (active use) and reception (passive use) of which are in some manner forbidden to the excommunicated.
Concerning the administration of the sacraments, the following matters are to be noted briefly:
a) An excommunicated person to be avoided (and also any other excommunicated person after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence) invalidly and illicitly administers sacraments for which jurisdiction is required.123 Only danger of death is excepted, in which any priest, when requested, can validly and licitly absolve from all censures and sins, as was said above. - Sacraments for whose valid administration jurisdiction is not required (namely, baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, extreme unction, and order) can be validly administered even by an excommunicated person to be avoided, provided that the other essentials are present.
b) A tolerated excommunicated person (provided he is not excommunicated by a condemnatory or declaratory sentence) always validly administers the sacraments, and indeed licitly if he has been explicitly or implicitly requested by the faithful.124 Hence, for example, a pastor who is occultly excommunicated on account of reading a heretical book can, notwithstanding the excommunication, present himself in the confessional to hear the confessions of the faithful when he is requested. He must then, however, elicit at least an act of perfect contrition, so that he may recover the state of sanctifying grace.
Concerning the reception of the sacraments, let these things be said:
a) An excommunicated person can validly receive all the sacraments, provided the other essentials required are present. Hence no sacrament is invalid on account of the excommunication alone of the one receiving it. Thus, for example, a penitent bound by a reserved excommunication is validly absolved from sins if a simple confessor through ignorance does not attend to the excommunication.
b) An excommunicated person cannot licitly receive any sacrament,125 unless ignorance or fear of grave harm excuses. Hence it is also gravely prohibited for anyone to administer the sacraments to an excommunicated person outside danger of death; indeed, one who voluntarily and knowingly admits an excommunicated person to be avoided to receive the sacraments incurs an excommunication simply reserved to the Supreme Pontiff.126 But one who admits excommunicated, suspended, or interdicted clerics after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence to celebrate the divine offices incurs an interdict from entrance into a church until he has made suitable satisfaction, at the judgment of the one whose sentence he contemned.127
Note. The use of sacramentals is not prohibited to excommunicated persons (unless, however, after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence); hence, for example, nothing prevents (setting aside the danger of profanation) blessed water, blessed medals, and so forth, from being given to Protestants.
123 Code of Canon Law, c. 2264.
124 Ibid., c. 2261, § 2.
125 Ibid., c. 2260.
126 Ibid., c. 2338, § 2.
127 Ibid., § 3.
501. 2. By rites are here understood the liturgical divine offices, or "functions of the power of order which by the institution of Christ or of the Church are ordained to divine worship and can be performed by clerics alone,"128 such as the sacrifice of the Mass, liturgical processions, the obsequies of the dead, blessings with the Most Holy Sacrament, and so forth.
According to the present practice of the Church, tolerated excommunicated persons (all heretics) indeed lack the right of assisting at the divine offices (not at the preaching of the word of God), but they are no longer strictly barred from the liturgical divine offices.129 For experience establishes that heretics obtain many fruits from this devout assistance and are gradually led back into the bosom of the Church.
Excommunicated persons to be avoided are gravely prohibited from assisting at the divine offices. Hence, if they nevertheless assist, they are to be warned to depart; but if they refuse this, they are to be expelled; and if even this is impossible, clerics are bound to interrupt divine offices already begun, provided this can be done without grave inconvenience.130
128 Code of Canon Law, c. 2256, n. 1.
129 Cf. Code of Canon Law, c. 2259; Lehmkuhl, Theol. mor. II, n. 1136; D'Annibale, Summula Theol. mor. I, n. 362; Noldin, De poenis eccl., n. 40.
130 Code of Canon Law, c. 2259, § 2; cf. what we said above in I, n. 524, concerning religious communication with non-Catholics.
502. 3. By communion are here understood the common suffrages of the Church. Under these suffrages are comprehended:
a) All public prayers which are performed in the name of the Church by public ministers of the Church, for example, the divine office of clerics and religious, the sacrifice of the Mass, and so forth.
b) Those suffrages which, even through private prayers and good works, without the special intention of those praying, redound to the whole body of the Church on account of the "communion of Saints."
c) All indulgences.131
Nothing prevents anyone from pouring forth private prayers for excommunicated persons, even those to be avoided. Today tolerated excommunicated persons are no longer excluded so strictly from the common suffrages; therefore it is also lawful to apply Mass privately for heretics, as was said above in n. 250.132
131 Code of Canon Law, c. 925, § 1.
132 Cf. Benedict XIV, Constitution Ex quo primum, March 1, 1756, § 23 ff.; Code of Canon Law, c. 2262.
503. 4. Crypt, that is, ecclesiastical burial, is forbidden to all excommunicated persons after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence;133 but if they have nevertheless been buried in a sacred place, they must be exhumed if this is morally possible; indeed, through such a burial the sacred place is violated and needs reconciliation.134
Note. Those who have dared to command or compel unbelievers, apostates from the faith, heretics, schismatics, or others, whether excommunicated or interdicted, to be given ecclesiastical burial contract an excommunication latae sententiae reserved to no one; but those who voluntarily give burial to the same persons contract an interdict from entrance into a church reserved to the Ordinary.135
133 Code of Canon Law, c. 1240, § 1, n. 2.
134 Ibid., c. 1172, § 1, n. 4. Besides excommunicated persons, the following are deprived of ecclesiastical burial unless before death they gave some signs of repentance: 1. Notorious apostates from the Christian faith; those who are notoriously attached to a heretical or schismatic sect, or to the Masonic sect or other societies of the same kind. 2. Suicides, unless they brought death upon themselves from an unsound mind. 3. Those who died in a duel or from a wound received from it. 4. Those who commanded their body to be given over to cremation. Hence it is not lawful to bestow ecclesiastical burial upon the ashes of a cremated body; rather, they are to be deposited in a separate place. Although the cremation of a human corpse is not evil of itself and therefore can be permitted for a certain and grave reason of the public good, as the Holy Office says on January 19, 1926 (Acta Ap. Sed. XVIII, 252), nevertheless it is contrary to the customs and liturgy of Christians. Therefore it is deservedly proscribed by the Church (Code of Canon Law, c. 1203). If anyone, clearly knowing the grave prohibition of the Church, nevertheless demands the cremation of his own corpse, he sins gravely and therefore, while this will persists, he is not worthy of sacramental absolution and ecclesiastical burial, even if this cremation does not follow (Pontifical Commission, November 10, 1925 [Acta Ap. Sed. XVII, 583]). Sometimes, however, the faithful demanding this cremation are in good faith, in which they can be left in order to avoid greater evils, provided that scandal is guarded against (Holy Office, July 27, 1892). If cremation is done not from the will of the deceased himself but from the command of another, ecclesiastical rites can be employed both in the home of the deceased and in the church, but not as far as the place of cremation. The scandal of the faithful must always be removed. 5. Other public and manifest sinners, for example, spouses who contracted marriage before a non-Catholic minister, or who consented to the non-Catholic education of their offspring (cf. Holy Office, May 8, 1908). But when any doubt occurs in the aforesaid cases, the Ordinary is to be consulted if time permits; if the doubt remains, the body is to be given ecclesiastical burial, yet in such a manner that scandal is removed (Code of Canon Law, c. 1240).
135 Code of Canon Law, c. 2339.
504. 5. Power signifies: a) ecclesiastical jurisdiction; b) the right of electing, presenting, and nominating; c) the faculty of obtaining ecclesiastical offices or orders, and indeed even the first tonsure; d) the faculty of exercising legitimate acts.
As regards a): An act of jurisdiction in either the external or internal forum placed by an excommunicated person is generally illicit, and indeed also invalid if it is placed by one to be avoided or by one who has been excommunicated by a declaratory or condemnatory sentence. In the first case the act becomes licit when the faithful seek such an act from the excommunicated person; in the latter case the act becomes valid and licit if it is sought by the faithful in danger of death.136
As regards b): Thus establishes the Code of Canon Law, c. 2265. Hence, for example, any excommunicated person cannot exercise the right of patronage in the presentation of a pastor.
As regards c): Thus establishes the Code of Canon Law, ibid.
As regards d): What legitimate acts are was said above in n. 146. An excommunicated person is furthermore prohibited from discharging ecclesiastical offices or duties and from enjoying privileges previously granted by the Church.137
Sacred revenues, that is, ecclesiastical fruits. For after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence, an excommunicated person remains deprived of the fruits of a dignity, office, benefice, pension, or duty, if he has any in the Church; indeed, one to be avoided is deprived not only of the fruits, but of the dignity, office, benefice, pension, or duty itself.
Forum, that is, communication in judgment, both civil and ecclesiastical. But in the civil forum this communication no longer appears to be prohibited.138 In the ecclesiastical forum, however, an excommunicated person who is either to be avoided or under a declaratory or condemnatory sentence cannot be a judge, advocate, plaintiff, procurator, witness, and so forth. But if he is summoned as a defendant, he can certainly do all those things which are necessary for his defense, since this is conceded by the natural law itself. - A tolerated excommunicated person is not deprived ipso facto of forensic communication, but he can nevertheless be repelled.
Civil rights, that is, civil communication, were formerly most strictly forbidden to excommunicated persons, but today this communication is no longer prohibited as regards tolerated excommunicated persons; indeed, even as regards excommunicated persons to be avoided it is no longer observed in its full rigor, so that, when a reasonable cause exists, it is lawful.139
136 Ibid., c. 2264.
137 Ibid., c. 2263.
138 Sacred Penitentiary, July 5, 1867.
139 Code of Canon Law, c. 2267.
505. b) Those effects of excommunication are called mediate which arise from contempt for the censure contracted. Two are enumerated:
Irregularity. An excommunicated cleric (or one bound by another canonical penalty) who culpably exercises an act of sacred order (but not of minor order) becomes irregular.140
Suspicion of heresy. Those remaining hardened for a year in excommunication become suspected of heresy.141 This suspicion, however, falls only upon excommunicated persons to be avoided or those excommunicated by a declaratory or condemnatory sentence.
140 Ibid., c. 985, n. 7.
141 Council of Trent, sess. 25, c. 3, de reform.; Code of Canon Law, c. 2340, § 1.