Chapter I. On Excommunication

I. Notion. 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 (canon 2257, § 1). That exclusion from ecclesiastical communion, that is, from participation in the goods whose dispensation has been committed to the Church, is among the greatest penalties, and is to be inflicted only with great circumspection (canon 2241, § 2); when it is inflicted or declared in judgment, it is reserved to a collegiate tribunal of three judges (canon 1576, § 1, 1°). It is also called anathema, especially if it is inflicted with the solemnities which are described in the Roman Pontifical¹ (canon 2257, § 2).

¹ Roman Pontifical, title The Order of Excommunicating and Absolving.

II. Division. Although on the one hand the effects of excommunication are inseparable from one another, and therefore cannot be separated at the judgment of the one inflicting the penalty, nevertheless by the law itself the effects of excommunication are increased after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence. Furthermore, for the benefit of the faithful the distinction between tolerated and to-be-avoided excommunicates has been introduced (cf. canon 2258, § 1).

1. Tolerated persons are those with whom it is permitted to the faithful to communicate fully in profane matters,¹ and in some sacred matters according to the rules to be handed down. This toleration is for the benefit of the faithful, because exclusion from the communion of the faithful of itself also includes civil communication with them.

2. To-be-avoided persons are those whom the baptized are bound to avoid both in profane and in sacred matters within the limits established by law. But no one is to be avoided unless: a) he has laid violent hands on the person of the Roman Pontiff, and he is to be avoided by the fact itself (canon 2343, § 1, 1°); b) 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 (canon 2258, § 2).

¹ Saving the natural law, which commands that the danger of perversion be avoided.

III. Nine effects are enumerated; moreover, the following are prohibited according to the norm of law:

1. Assistance at divine offices. Assistance is twofold, active and passive. One actively assists who in some way participates in the celebration of divine offices; hence even an inferior minister or one reciting in public psalmody. But singers and organists are not judged to concelebrate. One passively assists who is present but does not participate in the celebration. Therefore:

a) Any excommunicated person lacks the right of assisting, whether actively or passively, at divine offices, but not at the preaching of the word of God (canon 2259, § 1). Nevertheless he himself cannot preach. Moreover, an occult tolerated person by any assistance of itself sins only venially, or even, according to many, not at all, if there is question of passive assistance. A tolerated person after sentence, or one otherwise notorious, sins lightly by passive assistance; gravely by active assistance, if the matter is grave. A to-be-avoided person sins gravely by any assistance, if the matter is grave (St. Alphonsus VII, 173, 175, 177).

b) Regarding the expulsion of an excommunicated person, note:

alpha) Not only a to-be-avoided person, but also anyone after declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or otherwise notoriously excommunicated, is to be repelled from active assistance (canon 2259, § 2).

beta) A tolerated person can be repelled from passive assistance, since he lacks the right of assisting, but he need not be repelled. A to-be-avoided person must be expelled, or, if he cannot be expelled, the office must cease, provided this can be done without grave inconvenience (cited canon). Hence St. Alphonsus (VII, 177), concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass, says: "If he (the to-be-avoided person) cannot be expelled, the office must be omitted, even on a feast day; and the celebrant, if the Canon has not yet begun, must break off the Mass; if he has begun the Canon, he can, the others departing, either proceed with the sacred action or break it off, on account of the probability of each opinion;¹ if he has consecrated, the minister alone remaining, he must proceed up to Communion inclusive and complete the rest in the sacristy or another decent place," connected with the church.

Corollary I. Ignorance which is not gravely culpable, grave fear, and in general a grave extrinsic inconvenience excuses from observing the things set forth.

Corollary II. Prohibited passive assistance contains for the excommunicated person a dispensation from the precepts of hearing Mass, going to choir, and paschal confession. The last of these, however, presses the obligation of seeking absolution from the censure. Nevertheless he is bound privately, and if he is to be avoided, alone, to recite the canonical hours, if he is a cleric or a regular according to canon 610, § 3.

Corollary III. An excommunicated person is not prohibited from entering the Church at a time when the divine offices are not being celebrated, in order to pray privately (St. Alphonsus VII, 174).

2. Reception of sacraments and sacramentals.

a) Any excommunicated person cannot licitly receive the sacraments (canon 2260, § 1); but generally he receives them validly. I have said generally, for regarding the sacrament of Penance the things said in n. 864 are valid.

b) An excommunicated person after declaratory or condemnatory sentence² cannot licitly receive sacramentals. An occult tolerated person and one notorious by fact are not prohibited; but sacramentals do not profit these persons either, at least from the impetration of the Church, in whose prayer they do not participate. But exorcism can be performed licitly and validly by legitimate ministers upon any excommunicates (canon 1152). Likewise they seem always validly to receive constitutive sacramentals; for minor orders this follows from canon 968, § 1.

3. Ecclesiastical burial. This consists in the transfer of the body to the church, obsequies celebrated over it in the same church, and its deposition in a place legitimately deputed for burying the faithful departed (canon 1204). Now this ecclesiastical burial must be denied only to an excommunicated person after condemnatory or declaratory sentence, unless before death he has given some signs of penitence (canon 1240, § 1, 2°). Furthermore, to one excluded from ecclesiastical burial there must be denied both any funeral Mass, even an anniversary one, and other public funeral offices (canon 1241); concerning a private Mass to be celebrated for him, cf. n. 208. If the body of an excommunicated person after sentence, or of a to-be-avoided person, contrary to the statutes of the canons, has obtained burial in a church or cemetery, it must be exhumed by permission of the Ordinary, if this can be done without grave inconvenience and the body can certainly be distinguished from other bodies (canons 1172, § 1, 4°; 1175; 1207; 1242).

But if prohibited ecclesiastical burial is stubbornly demanded by others, even with grave threats, nevertheless "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 pastor, neither by himself nor through other priests, is to concur in any way in the funeral rites and burial."³

4. Confection and administration of sacraments and sacramentals. An excommunicated person is prohibited from licitly confecting and administering the Sacraments and Sacramentals, saving the exceptions which follow (canon 2261, § 1):

a) The faithful can, for any just cause, seek Sacraments and Sacramentals from an excommunicated person, especially if other ministers are lacking; and then the excommunicated person who is requested can minister them and is held by no obligation of inquiring into the cause from the one requesting (canon 2261, § 2).

b) But from excommunicated persons to be avoided, and also from other excommunicated persons after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has intervened, the faithful can seek, in danger of death alone, both sacramental absolution according to the norm of canon 882 (n. 370) and 2252 (p. 729), and also, if other ministers are lacking, the other Sacraments and Sacramentals (canon 2261, § 3).

As regards validity: Sacraments are always validly ministered by any persons possessing the required power of order, unless special jurisdiction is required for this; likewise Sacramentals, unless a special faculty is required for them. But an excommunicated person cannot enjoy this faculty, as will be said below at canon 2263, although he validly uses it.

5. Participation in indulgences, etc. An excommunicated person does not become a participant in indulgences, suffrages, and public prayers of the Church (canon 2262, § 1). It is said:

a) Indulgences, whether those which are applied to the living by an act of jurisdiction, or those which are granted to the dead by way of suffrage.

b) Suffrages; by this name here there seem to be understood prayers and liturgical rites which are performed by sacred ministers, either alone or together with the faithful, for a deceased person or for all the departed.

c) Public prayers of the Church, that is, those which are poured forth by sacred ministers, either alone or together with the faithful, in the name of the Church, such as canonical recitations of the divine office, Litanies, etc.

Nevertheless, the following are not prohibited: 1° the faithful praying privately for an excommunicated person; 2° priests applying Mass privately and with scandal removed for him; but, if he is to be avoided, only for his conversion (canon 2262, § 2). Besides, by way of exception, the Church prays for these persons on Feria VI in Parasceve, in the prayer for heretics and schismatics.

6. The exercise of some acts, functions, and privileges, namely by force of canon 2263:

a) An excommunicated person is removed from legitimate ecclesiastical acts within the limits defined by law in their proper places (cf. canon 2256, n. 2; n. 869, prelim. III, 2°).

b) He cannot act in ecclesiastical causes except according to the norm of canon 1654.

c) He is prohibited from discharging ecclesiastical offices or functions, strictly so called, canon 145, and from enjoying privileges previously granted by the Church. Therefore he does not lose functions, unless he is to be avoided, cf. below canon 2266, and privileges. Privileges are understood as personal privileges, strictly or broadly so called, granted to a physical person, or to a religious institute or generally to a moral person for the benefit of physical persons; not, however, privileges of the clerical state (canon 123) or others granted principally for the benefit of the religious institute itself or of the moral person, for example the privilege of exemption; and indeed granted by any ecclesiastical law or Superior. Moreover, besides rights, habitual faculties are numbered with privileges, which are granted either in perpetuity or for a predefined time or a certain number of cases (canon 66, § 1); for example, the faculty of dispensing in matrimonial impediments, or the special faculty of attaching indulgences to sacred things by a blessing. An excommunicated person would indeed use these faculties validly, but illicitly.

7. Exercise of jurisdiction of the internal and external forum. An excommunicated person before sentence exercises jurisdiction validly but illicitly, unless he is requested by the faithful for a just cause. After sentence he exercises it invalidly and illicitly, unless he is requested according to the norm of canon 2261, § 3 (p. 734); then he acts validly and licitly. Therefore excommunicated persons who have not been requested illicitly or invalidly issue laws, delegate others, etc. (St. Alphonsus VII, 185). Nevertheless note that sometimes the invalidity of the act of jurisdiction does not prevent the validity of the external act placed, for example in the distribution of Sacraments.

8. Exercise and acquisition of some special rights. By force of canons 2265 and 2266:

a) An excommunicated person before sentence:

alpha) Validly, but illicitly, exercises the right of electing, presenting, and nominating.

beta) Validly, but illicitly, acquires dignities, offices, strictly so called, benefices, ecclesiastical pensions, or another function, broadly so called, in the Church.

gamma) Validly, but illicitly, is promoted to Orders, even minor ones, and first tonsure (canons 950; 968, § 1).

b) An excommunicated person after sentence:

alpha) Illicitly and invalidly exercises the right of electing, presenting, and nominating.

beta) Illicitly and invalidly acquires dignities, offices, strictly so called, benefices, ecclesiastical pensions, or another function, broadly so called, in the Church.

gamma) Validly, but illicitly, is promoted to Orders, even minor ones, and first tonsure.

delta) He cannot validly obtain any pontifical grace,⁴ unless mention of the excommunication is made in the pontifical rescript.

epsilon) He remains deprived of the fruits of the dignity, office, benefice, pension, or function, if he has any in the Church.

c) A to-be-avoided person suffers the same effects as an excommunicated person after sentence; but in addition he remains deprived of the dignity itself, office, benefice, pension, or function.

9. Communion in profane matters. The faithful must avoid communion in profane matters with an excommunicated person to be avoided, unless there is question of a spouse, parents, children, servants, subjects, and generally unless a reasonable cause excuses (canon 2267). From the latter words it follows that the prohibition presses only under light sin. Nevertheless note canon 2338, § 2: those rendering any assistance or favor to an excommunicated person to be avoided in the delict on account of which he was excommunicated incur by the fact itself an excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See.⁵

¹ See, nevertheless, how the parallel case is resolved in canon 1173, § 2.

² The things which are valid concerning an excommunicated person after sentence must also be understood concerning a to-be-avoided person, although condemned by decree of the Apostolic See, but not concerning one notorious by fact.

³ Sacred Penitentiary, December 10, 1860 (A.S.S. I, p. 563, question 21).

⁴ There are also dispensations and privileges, according to canon 36, § 2; cf. the Order to be observed in the Sacred Congregations, September 20, 1908, Part II, chapter III, n. 6. If mention of the penalty is made, absolution for the effect is added.

⁵ One gives favor who, although he becomes in no way a participant in the continued delict, nevertheless procures for the delinquent some material or moral advantage on account of it (Chelodi, op. cit., p. 80, 2).

IV. Violation of excommunication is a grave or light sin according as the excommunicated person places an act excluded by excommunication of grave or light importance. In addition, a cleric excommunicated in sacred orders, who places an act of order reserved to clerics constituted in sacred order, is irregular (canon 985, 7°). Finally, if someone, with hardened spirit, has wallowed for a year in the censure of excommunication, he is suspected of heresy (canon 2340, § 1).