§ I. On the nature and division of excommunication

Excommunication. § 1. Excommunication is a censure by which someone is excluded from the communion of the faithful with the effects which are enumerated in the canons which follow, and which cannot be separated.

§ 2. It is also called anathema, especially if it is inflicted with the solemnities which are described in the Roman Pontifical (Can. 2257).

From the first paragraph minor excommunication is excluded. One and the same signification of excommunication and anathema is clear from the Tridentine, sess. 24, de refor., c. 3; namely, they sound a total exclusion from the Church. If excommunication is made solemnly, then the word anathema is employed; but there is no substantial distinction. Excommunication simply excludes the delinquent from the communion of the faithful with the effects to be enumerated, which cannot be separated.

§ 1. Of the excommunicated, some are vitandi, others tolerated.

§ 2. No one is vitandus unless he has been excommunicated by name by the Apostolic See, the excommunication has been publicly denounced, and in the decree or sentence it is expressly said that he must be avoided, with the prescription of can. 2343, § 1, n. 1 remaining safe (Can. 2258).

In this division of excommunicated persons this chiefly must be noted: no one is to be avoided unless these adjuncts accompany it: that, first, he has been excommunicated by name; second, by the Apostolic See; third, the excommunication has been publicly denounced; fourth, it is expressly said in the decree that he must be avoided. This one alone henceforth is vitandus.