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

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.

2. 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.

¹ Council of Trent, sess. 25, c. 3, De reform.

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.

The effects of excommunication, according to the Code, may be enumerated as follows:

(a) An excommunicated person has no right to assist at divine offices—that is, functions of the power of order which are ordained to the worship of God by the institution of Christ or of the Church, and which can be exercised by clerics alone.

(b) An excommunicated person cannot receive the sacraments, and after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, not even the sacramentals.

(c) As a general rule the lawful administration of the sacraments and sacramentals is forbidden to excommunicated persons. However, especially if other ministers are not to be had, the faithful may ask for the sacraments and sacramentals from an excommunicated priest, and then the latter can administer the same without asking the reason for the request.

But from one who is to be avoided and from others after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence, only in danger of - death can the faithful ask for sacramental absolution, and then also the other sacraments and sacramentals if other ministers are not to be had.

(d) An excommunicated person does not share in the indulgences, suffrages, and public prayers of the Church.

The faithful, however, are not forbidden to pray for him privately. Priests are not forbidden privately and with the avoidance of scandal to offer Mass for him, but only for his conversion, if he is to be avoided.

(e) An excommunicated person is removed from the exercise of ecclesiastical offices in law within the limits laid down under the proper heads.

(f) An act of jurisdiction, both of the external and internal forum, when exercised by an excommunicated person is unlawful, and also invalid after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence, with the exceptions mentioned above.

(g) An excommunicated person is debarred from the right of electing, presenting, nominating, he cannot acquire dignities, offices, benefices, ecclesiastical pensions, or other posts in the Church; nor can he be promoted to orders.

(h) After a condemnatory or declaratory sentence of excommunication he is deprived of the emoluments of office if he had one in the Church, and if he is to be avoided, of the office itself.

(k) The faithful ought to avoid communicating in secular matters with one who is to be avoided, unless there is question of a spouse, of parents, children, servants, subjects, and generally unless a reasonable cause excuses it (Can. 2259-2267).

Beside the foregoing effects immediately produced by excommunication, there are others more remote. If the person under excommunication violates the censure by unlawfully and solemnly exercising sacred Orders, he incurs irregularity, and if after due admonitions he takes no steps to be released from the censure but remains in it for a whole year, he becomes suspect of heresy (Can. 985, vii; 2340).

960. • Excommunication deprives one both of the right to receive the Sacraments and of the right to administer them ⁹. Hence you will resolve:

⁹ The Author, in order to consult brevity, wished to treat jointly of this twofold effect of excommunication, namely, the removal of both the passive and active use of the sacraments; and since each case involves a twofold cause, namely, both that of the excommunicated person and that of the other who either confers the sacraments upon the excommunicated person or asks for the sacraments from him, and in addition since in many matters the case of an excommunicated person to be avoided is one thing, but that of a tolerated person another, it is no wonder that the Author's treatment, very brief in itself, became obscure and exceedingly meager.

Therefore, with respect to the removed passive use of the sacraments, let these things be noted more distinctly.

1. An excommunicated person, even a tolerated one, is barred from receiving the sacraments and sins gravely by violating this prohibition of the Church. Nevertheless, from this illicit reception he incurs no penalty except suspension from the Order which he receives in that state. Schmalzgrueber (book 5, title 39, no. 128) and St. Alphonsus (book 7, no. 160). From the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis, this penalty has ceased.

2. Not only inculpable ignorance, but also fear of death, mutilation, infamy, grave loss of goods, etc., excuses the excommunicated person from that fault; and also the necessity of fulfilling the annual precepts of Confession and Communion, if there is no one who can absolve him from the reserved censure. The reason is that an ecclesiastical law does not bind so rigorously and with such grave inconvenience. St. Alphonsus (no. 158) with the common opinion of the Doctors.

3. Although illicitly, indeed sacrilegiously, nevertheless an excommunicated person validly receives the sacraments, Penance excepted. Although even this sacrament will be valid if the penitent, otherwise disposed, approaches in good faith; which can happen either because he himself, through inculpable ignorance or forgetfulness, does not disclose the censure; or because the priest is ignorant of or does not advert to the censure annexed to the sin; or even, while adverting to it and indeed to one reserved, nevertheless without the faculty, thinks that the penitent is to be absolved from the non-reserved sins on account of the aforesaid necessity; or even through malice absolves a penitent who thinks that the priest does not lack the faculty of absolving.

4. Since the excommunicated person sins by receiving the sacraments before he is absolved, by that very fact the minister who knowingly confers the sacraments upon him sins.

5. If the excommunicated person to whom the sacraments are given is tolerated, the minister (as the Author well notes) indeed sins against divine law, but not against the law of the Church. But if he is a person to be avoided, not only does the minister violate the law of the Church, but under the ancient law he also incurred excommunication and also interdict from entering a church, from chapter Episcoporum 8, On Privileges, in the Sext; and suspension from office was added besides if these excommunicated persons had been excommunicated on account of heresy or as supporters of heretics; nor was such a minister to be restored to office without the Pope's dispensation, from chapter Excommunicamus 13, section Credentes, On Heretics. See Schmalzgrueber (book 5, title 39, no. 128). But now he will incur merely an excommunication reserved to the Pontiff if he ministers the sacraments to one excommunicated by name by the Supreme Pontiff himself. From the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis, chapter Significavit 18, On the Sentence of Excommunication, and Clementine 3 under the same title.

6. Moreover, someone licitly administers the sacraments to an excommunicated person whenever, according to the things said (no. 2), the latter licitly approaches to receive them before he is absolved.

But with respect to the active use of the sacraments, these things must be held:

1. In a case of necessity an excommunicated person, whether tolerated or to be avoided, administers the sacraments both validly and licitly, for example, by absolving at the point of death.

2. Outside a case of necessity, in order that a tolerated person administer licitly, the request alone of the faithful suffices, provided that he is otherwise in the state of grace and cannot first obtain absolution from the censure. But in order that the faithful licitly request this, although some require a cause at least of great utility, others nevertheless do not think even this necessary; and St. Alphonsus (book 7, no. 165) also admits their opinion as probable.

3. But if necessity and the request of the faithful (at least tacit, according to St. Alphonsus, no. 169) are lacking, even a tolerated person sins gravely and, on account of the exercise of Holy Orders, also incurs irregularity, according to the things to be said below (St. Alphonsus, no. 171).

4. But a person to be avoided incurs irregularity even if, without necessity, he ministers the sacraments when requested by the faithful. In this case the faithful sin gravely by receiving the sacraments from him, and under the ancient law incurred minor excommunication (St. Alphonsus, no. 172).

5. Nevertheless, the person to be avoided is excused when, if he does not confer the sacrament, he incurs danger of death, mutilation, infamy, or grave loss of goods; for then, unless that threat is made in contempt of the censure, he can licitly minister the sacraments which he can validly minister, because the Church, a pious mother, is not presumed to wish to bind by her laws with such great loss. Schmalzgrueber (book 5, title 39, no. 144), St. Alphonsus (book 7, no. 170).

6. In addition, by reason of necessity, the Doctors think that an excommunicated person to be avoided can not only confer baptism upon one in danger, but also the Eucharist or Extreme Unction when the dying person cannot receive the sacrament of Penance; because, since any sacrament can make one contrite from being attrite, it will sometimes happen that, on account of the reception of the Eucharist or Extreme Unction, salvation is obtained which would not be obtained if these sacraments were not received. Schmalzgrueber (loc. cit., no. 145), St. Alphonsus (loc. cit., no. 170). Indeed, grave Doctors add that the Eucharist or Extreme Unction can licitly be given by a person to be avoided to a sick person even if the latter has received the sacrament of Penance; the reason is that it is most necessary that the sick person be helped and receive strength from it to overcome the suggestions of the devil in that moment. Schmalzgrueber (loc. cit., no. 146).

7. Finally, a parish priest to be avoided would assist at a marriage validly but illicitly, although he does not incur irregularity through this; but he would deputize another to assist not only validly but also licitly. St. Alphonsus (book 7, no. 166).

1. An excommunicated person, whether to be avoided or even tolerated, who receives or confers the Sacraments sins gravely per se; except: 1. if he confers the Sacraments in a case of necessity; 2. if, being tolerated, he confers them when asked by the faithful themselves.

2. Ministers of the Church who confer the Sacraments upon excommunicated persons, whether persons to be avoided or merely tolerated persons, sin gravely, at least per se, since they are unworthy. Nevertheless, one who confers the Sacraments only upon tolerated persons sins not against the prohibition of the Church but only against divine law. The reason is that the Church no longer prohibits communication, even in divine things, with tolerated persons. But they sin against divine law, because it is never licit to give holy things to dogs. - See St. Alphonsus, nos. 158, 165 and following.

964. • Hence you will resolve. - 1. Excommunicated persons to be avoided are deprived of all the common suffrages of the Church. This is apparent, because the Church by her own right prohibits prayer from being made for them ¹³, or any portion of her goods from coming to them. And this holds even if they were contrite and converted to a better life, because the excommunication still endures. - St. Alphonsus, no. 163.

¹³ The reason why prayer in the Mass for an infidel is not forbidden, while nevertheless it is forbidden for an excommunicated Christian to be avoided, must be derived solely from the precept of the Church. See above, note to no. 349.

2. Neither tolerated persons nor even persons to be avoided are deprived of private suffrages. The reason is that the faithful are not prohibited from praying privately for excommunicated persons, even in a church and in a public place; therefore they can apply to them the fruit of good works. - St. Alphonsus, no. 162.

3. Tolerated excommunicated persons are not deprived of common suffrages. The reason is that the Church no longer prohibits the faithful from communicating with tolerated persons, as is deduced from the things said above. - St. Alphonsus, no. 164.

965. • Ecclesiastical burial is that which takes place in a sacred place, or one blessed for the burial of the faithful. Hence:

1. An excommunicated person to be avoided cannot be buried in a sacred place; but if he has been buried in such a place, his body ought to be dug up, if it can still be done, and the sacred place polluted by such contact is to be expiated. - St. Alphonsus, no. 186.

2. A tolerated excommunicated person is likewise deprived of ecclesiastical burial; and if he has been buried in a sacred place, he is to be removed from it ¹⁴. Nevertheless, the place is not considered polluted and therefore does not need expiation.

¹⁴ If he gave signs of repentance, he can be buried in a sacred place, although it is fitting that he first be absolved from excommunication. But a person to be avoided who gave those signs cannot be buried in a sacred place unless he is first absolved. Schmalzgrueber (book 5, title 39, no. 127).

3. Clerics who carry forth and bury a person to be avoided incurred major excommunication under the ancient law. - Thus from the Clementine On Burial. - From the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis, only those commanding and compelling it are excommunicated, as will be seen below.

966. • 1. An excommunicated person to be avoided is deprived of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or rather of its exercise and use. Hence he cannot absolve in the penitential forum, nor impose laws, censures, or sentences, nor elect to benefices or confer them, etc. But if he performed such acts, they would be altogether null and invalid. - St. Alphonsus, no. 185.

2. A tolerated excommunicated person, even if notorious, validly exercises jurisdiction, because otherwise great confusion would arise in the Church. Nevertheless, his acts can be invalidated and repelled through an exception or objection of excommunication, and he himself acts illicitly outside a case of necessity or unless he has been asked; and indeed in a grave matter he cannot be excused from mortal sin. But if he has been asked, he does not sin, even if he ministers the Sacraments without cause. For since communication with tolerated persons has been conceded to the faithful, indirectly it has also been granted to these persons to communicate with the faithful who request it. Nevertheless, this holds insofar as the sacraments are requested from an excommunicated person; for insofar as they are requested from a Minister existing in mortal sin, a just cause is required in order to request them licitly. - Thus St. Alphonsus, no. 139, and book 6, no. 88.

967. • 1. Every excommunicated person, whether tolerated or to be avoided, becomes altogether incapable of obtaining ecclesiastical benefices. The reason is that a benefice is given on account of an office, but an excommunicated person is altogether incapable of an office; therefore also of a benefice. Except if the benefice were conferred by the Pope himself. - St. Alphonsus, no. 180.

2. Nevertheless, excommunication does not deprive one of a benefice already obtained, nor of its fruits before the sentence of a judge. The reason is that neither is clearly expressed in law. If, however, he neglects to obtain absolution for a year, he can be deprived of the benefice by a judge. - St. Alphonsus, ibid.

3. An excommunicated person accepting a benefice ¹⁵, and the one from whom he receives it, sin gravely, since they act against a grave prohibition of the Church. But one conferring it formerly incurred minor excommunication and suspension ipso facto from the conferral of that benefice if the excommunicated person was one to be avoided. - After the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis, these censures ceased.

¹⁵ According to the more common and more probable opinion, the acceptance of a benefice which had been conferred before someone incurred excommunication is valid, although he accepts it when already bound by excommunication (Reiffenstuel, book 5, title 39, no. 65); just as, if an excommunicated person takes possession of a benefice duly conferred upon him or sends another into possession, the possession and the placing into possession are valid, because both possession and the placing into possession are matters of fact, not of law. See Schmalzgrueber (book 5, title 39, no. 150), who adds (ibid., no. 154) that the conferral of a pension which is given to an excommunicated cleric for support while he resigns or exchanges a benefice or yields in litigation is probably valid.

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.

1. 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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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:

1. 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

2. 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.

682. Excommunication (Kerkban) is a censure by which someone is excluded from the ecclesiastical communion of the faithful with the effects which are enumerated in law and which cannot be separated from it (can. 2257, § 1); when solemnly inflicted it is called by the special name anathema (banvloek). Formerly, says Prummer, Th. M. III, n. 499, a distinction was made between major or perfect excommunication, and minor excommunication, which deprived only of the reception of the sacraments and of passive election to benefices; but the latter no longer exists, at least as a censure inflicted by the law itself. Major excommunication either leaves the delinquent tolerated, or renders him to be avoided; but the tolerated person either is simply such, or has been condemned by a declaratory or condemnatory sentence. According to the discipline now in force, no one is to be avoided, unless a) he has been excommunicated by name by the Apostolic See, the excommunication has been publicly denounced, and in the decree or sentence it is said that he must be avoided (can. 2258); or b) unless he has laid violent hands upon the person of the Supreme Pontiff, in which case he is by the fact itself to be avoided (can. 2343, § 1, n. 1).

A. The effect of excommunication is to deprive:

1. of the right of assisting at divine offices, with preaching excepted, and indeed in such a way that one to be avoided must be expelled, or, if he cannot be expelled, the office must cease, provided this can be done without grave inconvenience; but from active assistance, which carries with it some participation in the celebration of divine offices, not only one to be avoided, but also anyone after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or one otherwise notoriously excommunicated, is to be repelled (can. 2259);

2. of the licit reception of the sacraments, and, after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, also of sacramentals (can. 2260, § 1);

3. of the licit confecting and administration of the sacraments and sacramentals, unless one simply tolerated has been asked by the faithful; but from excommunicates to be avoided, and also from others after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has intervened, the faithful can ask, in danger of death alone, both sacramental absolution and also, if other ministers are lacking, the other sacraments and sacramentals (can. 2261);

4. of common suffrages, indulgences, and the public prayers of the Church; - yet not of the private prayers of the faithful, whence priests can privately and with scandal removed apply Mass for an excommunicated person, but, if he is to be avoided, only for his conversion (can. 2262);

5. of ecclesiastical burial after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence (can. 1240, § 1);

6. of exercising legitimate ecclesiastical acts, for example, the office of sponsor, and of discharging ecclesiastical offices and enjoying privileges previously granted (can. 2263);

7. of exercising acts of jurisdiction both of the external and of the internal forum, and indeed in such a way that, if a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has been given, they are also invalid, excepting the case of danger of death mentioned under 3; otherwise they are valid, indeed licit if they are sought by the faithful (can. 2264);

8. of promotion to orders; - indeed of the right of electing, presenting, nominating, and obtaining a dignity, office, benefice, ecclesiastical pension, or any other function in the Church, in such a way that the act placed is null if it is placed by an excommunicate to be avoided, or by another after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence. In this case he also will not ordinarily be able validly to obtain any pontifical grace, and he remains deprived of the fruits of the dignity, office, benefice, pension, or function which he has in the Church; but one to be avoided is deprived of the dignity, office, benefice, pension, or function itself (can. 2265-66).

It should be noted: a) The faithful must avoid communion in profane matters with an excommunicate to be avoided, unless there is question of spouse, parents, children, servants, subjects, and generally unless a reasonable cause is present (can. 2267).

b) An excommunicated person is irregular from delict if he culpably places an act of order reserved to clerics constituted in sacred order (can. 985, 7).

c) If with hardened mind he has remained for a year in excommunication, he is suspected of heresy (can. 2340, § 1).

B. The following incur excommunication latae sententiae by the common law:

a) Most specially reserved to the Holy See:

1. Those who throw away the consecrated species or carry them away or retain them for an evil purpose (can. 2320).

To throw away means to cast away or destroy as a contemptible thing or as of no value; not, however, to place them carefully upon the table lest they be lost, or to put them away in the tabernacle, nor merely to profane them once they have already been carried away or retained. One guilty of this crime, moreover, is a) suspected of heresy, b) infamous by the law itself, c) to be deposed, if he is a cleric.

2. Those who lay violent hands upon the person of the Supreme Pontiff (can. 2343, § 1).

That violence is to be understood as a grave real injury (not verbal) by which the body or liberty or dignity of the person is harmed. One guilty of this crime, moreover, is a) by the fact itself to be avoided, b) infamous by the law itself, c) to be degraded, if he is a cleric.

3. One guilty of absolution of an accomplice in a base sin (can. 2367), in the manner stated above, n. 636.

4. A confessor who has presumed directly to violate the sacramental seal (can. 2369), concerning which it was stated in n. 626 and 630, n. 1.

The aforesaid four canons also have force for the Oriental Church.

5. Those who violate the secret of the Holy Office concerning information required about candidates for the episcopate (S. C. C., Apr. 24, 1917; cf. can. 239, § 1, 1).

6. Those having part in a conclave who directly or indirectly violate the secret in those things which regard the election of the Supreme Pontiff and which are done in the conclave or in the place of election (can. 2330, and Pius X, const. Vacante, Dec. 25, 1904).

Most special reservation to be absolved exclusively by the Sacred Penitentiary has very recently been incurred by: priests attempting merely civil marriage and living chastely with a woman, in order to receive the sacraments after the manner of laymen (S. Poen., Apr. 18-28, 1936).

b) Specially reserved to the Holy See:

1. Apostates, heretics, schismatics (can. 2314), outwardly manifesting their mind.

Concerning this matter we spoke in I, n. 747, 750, and 956.

2. Those suspected of heresy if, after being warned, they do not amend themselves after six months; namely, they are to be held as heretics, liable to the penalties of heretics (can. 2315).

Concerning this see I, n. 747, note 1.

3. Those who, by a work made public, publish books of apostates, heretics, or schismatics which defend apostasy, heresy, or schism; or who defend those same books or books prohibited by name by apostolic letters, or knowingly read or retain them without due license (can. 2318, § 1).

Concerning this matter we spoke in I, n. 776.

4. One not promoted to the priesthood who simulates the celebration of Mass or hears sacramental confession (can. 2322). Cf. n. 90, 1.

5. All who appeal from the laws, decrees, or mandates of the Roman Pontiff existing at the time to a universal Council (can. 2332).

6. Those who impede letters or acts of the Holy See or of its legates, directly or indirectly prohibit their promulgation or execution, or on account of them harm or terrify either those to whom the letters or acts pertain or others (can. 2333).

7. Those who publish laws, mandates, or decrees against the liberty or rights of the Church; or those who, by recourse to the lay power, impede the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction (can. 2334).

Those who publish are all who must concur so that the law or decree may be issued; not however notaries who transcribe mandates, nor heralds who promulgate them, nor those who see that statutes of this sort are observed, or apply them, or use them.

8. Those who dare to bring before a lay judge a Cardinal, a Legate of the Holy See, a major official of the Roman Curia, or one's own Ordinary (can. 2341).

9. Those who lay violent hands upon a cardinal, a legate of the Supreme Pontiff, or any bishop (can. 2343, § 2 and 3).

10. Those who usurp or detain by themselves or through others goods or rights of the Roman Church (can. 2345).

Some effects of excommunication are mediate, but others immediate, according as they arise only from violation of the censure or from the censure itself. - Two mediate effects are chiefly numbered, namely: 1°. irregularity, which the excommunicated person incurs by exercising an act of some Order, for example, by conferring sacraments; 2°. suspicion of heresy, into which he falls who obstinately persists for a whole year in excommunication.

§ 1. If someone, with hardened soul, has for a year persisted in the censure of excommunication, he is suspected of heresy.

§ 2. If a cleric has persevered in the censure of suspension for a half-year, let him be gravely admonished, and if, after a month has passed from the admonition, he has not withdrawn from contumacy, let him be deprived of benefices or offices, if perhaps he has any in the Church (Can. 2340).

But eight immediate effects of excommunication are numbered, namely: 1°. privation of divine offices; 2°. privation of reception of the Sacraments; 3°. privation of administration of the sacraments and sacramentals; 4°. privation of indulgences, suffrages, public prayers of the Church; 5°. removal from legitimate ecclesiastical acts; 6°. privation of jurisdiction, whether of licit use or, in the adjuncts, valid use; 7°. privation of election, dignities, etc., privation of the fruits of dignities; 8°. privation of communion in profane matters.

Sacred things, rites, communion, crypt, power, Sacred estates, forum, civil rights are forbidden.

§ 1. Any excommunicated person lacks the right of assisting at divine offices, but not at the preaching of the word of God.

§ 2. If a tolerated person assists passively, it is not necessary that he be expelled; if he is vitandus, he must be expelled, or, if he cannot be expelled, the office must be ceased from, provided this can be done without grave inconvenience; but from active assistance, which carries with itself some participation in celebrating divine offices, not only a vitandus but also anyone after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or otherwise notoriously excommunicated, is to be repelled (Can. 2259).

It must be noted that that sentence carries with itself most grave effects, even in relation to him who is not vitandus.

§ 1. Nor can an excommunicated person receive the Sacraments; indeed, after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, not even Sacramentals.

§ 2. As regards ecclesiastical burial, let the prescription of can. 1240, § 1, n. 2 be observed (Can. 2260).

Unless he is excused by invincible ignorance or grave fear (which nevertheless was not struck in contempt of the censure), an excommunicated person sins gravely, whether vitandus or even tolerated, by receiving the sacraments, because he violates a grave law of the Church. But he validly receives them, with Penance excepted. Indeed not even that excepted, provided he is otherwise disposed, and approaches in good faith on account of invincible ignorance: for then the things required for the substance of the sacrament are present, namely, on the part of the penitent, matter or sufficient sorrow; on the part of the confessor, form, as is supposed, intention and jurisdiction, which is taken from him by no law.

They are deprived of ecclesiastical burial, unless before death they have given some signs of penitence after that aforesaid sentence. Again one must advert to the force of the declaratory sentence.

§ 1. The excommunicated person is prohibited licitly to confect and minister Sacraments and Sacramentals, with the exceptions which follow remaining safe.

§ 2. The faithful, with the prescription of § 3 remaining safe, can for any just cause ask Sacraments and Sacramentals from an excommunicated person, especially if other ministers are lacking, and then the excommunicated person, when requested, can minister the same and is held by no obligation of questioning the cause from the requester.

§ 3. But from excommunicated persons who are vitandi, and also from other excommunicated persons after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has intervened, the faithful can ask, in danger of death alone, both sacramental absolution according to the norm of can. 882, 2252, and also, if other ministers are lacking, the other Sacraments and Sacramentals (Can. 2261).

All priests, validly and licitly, even if not approved, absolve in the article of death any penitents whatever from any sins and censures whatever, with the obligation of recurring if they have been absolved from a censure ab homine or from one reserved in a most special mode to the Supreme Pontiff.

§ 1. An excommunicated person does not become a sharer in indulgences, suffrages, public prayers of the Church.

§ 2. Nevertheless, there are not prohibited:

1°. The faithful privately praying for him;

2°. Priests privately and with scandal removed applying Mass for him; but, if he is vitandus, only for his conversion (Can. 2262).

Therefore the excommunicated person does not gain indulgences, nor does he enjoy suffrages which arise from the sacrifice of the Mass in the name of the whole Church. Concerning Mass, let those things be compared which have been said in the Treatise on the Sacrifice of the Mass, or On the Eucharist as Sacrifice.

The excommunicated person is removed from legitimate ecclesiastical acts within his limits defined by law in their places; he cannot act in ecclesiastical causes except according to the norm of can. 1654; he is prohibited from discharging ecclesiastical offices or functions, and from enjoying privileges previously conceded by the Church (Can. 2263).

An act of jurisdiction, whether of the external forum or of the internal forum, placed by an excommunicated person is illicit; and, if a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has been brought, also invalid, with the prescription of can. 2261, § 3 remaining safe; otherwise it is valid, indeed also licit, if it has been asked by the faithful according to the norm of the mentioned can. 2261, § 2 (Can. 2264).

Behold again how dreadful an effect of that sentence this is.

§ 1. Any excommunicated person:

1°. Is prohibited from the right of electing, presenting, nominating;

2°. Cannot obtain dignities, offices, benefices, ecclesiastical pensions, or any other function in the Church;

3°. Cannot be promoted to orders.

§ 2. Nevertheless an act placed against the prescription of § 1, nn. 1, 2, is not null, unless it was placed by an excommunicated person who is vitandus, or by another excommunicated person after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence; but if this sentence has been brought, the excommunicated person cannot furthermore validly obtain any pontifical grace unless mention of the excommunication is made in the pontifical rescript (Can. 2265).

After a condemnatory or declaratory sentence the excommunicated person remains deprived of the fruits of dignity, office, benefice, pension, function, if he has any in the Church; and the vitandus of the dignity itself, office, benefice, pension, function (Can. 2266).

The vitandus is deprived both of dignity, etc., and of fruits; after that sentence the excommunicated person is deprived of fruits, but not likewise of dignity, etc.

The faithful must avoid communion in profane matters with an excommunicated person who is vitandus, unless there is question of spouse, parents, children, servants, subjects, and generally unless a reasonable cause excuses (Can. 2267).

VIII. QUESTION IV. What harms does the third effect of excommunication bring? ANSWER. It deprives one, whether to be shunned or tolerated, of the office of celebrating the divine offices and of assisting at them. But by the name of offices are understood all the sacred functions which are performed publicly by the Church, as the celebration of Masses, the canonical hours, public prayers, processions, blessings, consecrations of chrism, and accompanying the Eucharist when it is carried to the sick. Excommunicates nevertheless can hear a sermon, and enter the church privately and pray there; nay they are bound to pour forth prayers and to recite the canonical hours if they be clerics, otherwise they would carry off a convenience from their iniquity. They cannot nevertheless in reciting the hours employ a companion without venial fault, a just cause being taken away. Neither those to be shunned nor the tolerated can hear Mass; nay, if one to be shunned were present, he would have to be admonished to withdraw; and if, being ordered, he did not withdraw, he would incur a new excommunication. And when he could not be expelled, the faithful ought to withdraw, lest they communicate with him. If the priest have not begun the canon, he ought to interrupt the Mass and go away. If he have begun the canon, he ought to pursue the Mass with one minister up to the taking of the chalice, and omit all the rest, or perform the same in the sacristy, if a fit place be there.

X. Excommunicates are deprived of ecclesiastical burial, or in a sacred place. By the name of a sacred place are understood temples, cemeteries, cloisters, and other places deputed to celebrating the divine offices and to divine worship. This nevertheless is understood of excommunicates to be shunned, who, if they have been buried in a sacred place, are to be exhumed and cast forth; and the sacred place is to be purged by aspersion. Those who bury these men in a sacred place incur the greater excommunication. But those commanding and procuring it contract the lesser excommunication. But those who bury tolerated excommunicates, even heretics, who have not been specially denounced, do not incur excommunication, as authors commonly teach. But he who should bury a heretic condemned by a judge's sentence would incur the greater excommunication.

XI. The fifth effect deprives an excommunicate, whether to be shunned or tolerated, of all use of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. A tolerated excommunicate nevertheless, if he be sought out by the parties, can lawfully and validly exercise acts of jurisdiction, as to elect, present, and confer benefices, on account of the faculty which the constitution of Martin V affords the faithful of communicating with a tolerated excommunicate. But if the faithful litigants should reject a tolerated excommunicate, then his acts would be of no value. Those giving the exception would have to manifest within eight days the species of the excommunication. Things done through ecclesiastical jurisdiction by an excommunicate to be shunned are unlawful and invalid, nor are subjects bound to obey him.

XIII. The resignation of a benefice made by a tolerated excommunicate is valid; nay even that made by one to be shunned, if it be simple and not in favour of another: because such a resignation is not an act of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, but a simple cession of a benefice. The things which are done by an excommunicate to be shunned as a private person are valid, although unlawful, if he communicate with others. A testament nevertheless made by an excommunicate on account of heresy, or of the striking of a Cardinal, would be null, from chapter Felicis on penalties in the Sixth. They assert also that instruments made by a notary excommunicated and to be shunned are invalid.

XIV. QUESTION VI. What unfitness do excommunicates incur by force of the seventh effect? ANSWER. Those bound by the greater excommunication are unfit for ecclesiastical benefices. Wherefore election, presentation, postulation, nomination, collation, and the impetration of letters in favour of an excommunicate are null; and both those electing and presenting, and those receiving a benefice whether by cause of commutation or of resignation, sin mortally; and besides the lesser excommunication which those conferring a benefice upon an excommunicate to be shunned incur, they also contract a suspension from the collation of such a benefice. And these things extend also to the suspended, the interdicted, and the irregular. A collation made by the Pontiff is excepted, because the one conferring is presumed to dispense, unless a man be excommunicated for heresy, which is not taken away by a general clause. If anyone were vincibly ignorant of his own excommunication, or of the absolution from the excommunication, the collation of the benefice would be null, as the common opinion teaches. An excommunicate receiving a benefice does not make the fruits his own, but is bound to restore them. When nevertheless he receives it in good faith, being ignorant of his own excommunication, when he recalls it he ought to dismiss the benefice, and to restore that in which he has been made richer.

XVI. QUESTION VIII. What is forensic and civil excommunication? ANSWER. The ninth effect of excommunication is that an excommunicate cannot be a judge, plaintiff, advocate, witness, notary, or procurator in the forum. If nevertheless he be tolerated, he can defend a client, provided he be not repelled, just as he can be repelled if his excommunication be known. Wherefore judgments of a forum are valid in which the plaintiff, witness, or notary is a tolerated excommunicate; on the contrary, if he be one to be shunned, and if the judge himself have been such, all the acts of such a forum are void, as the more common opinion teaches. The testimony of an excommunicate, if it be admitted by a judge, is valid. An excommunicate nevertheless can be cited, and act as defendant in judgment. He ought nevertheless to do this through a procurator, unless he be poor.

XVII. The tenth effect of excommunication is a privation of political communication by way of commerce or society, unless necessity excuse, or unless the excommunicate be requested. He who communicates in civil things with an excommunicate to be shunned sins venially, in sacred things mortally. Communication with a tolerated one includes no fault. A continued civil communication nevertheless with one to be shunned, according to the more probable opinion, is not free from grave fault, and carries with it the lesser excommunication. Nevertheless: 1. When the excommunication has been passed by the Pope by a singular sentence, by name, he who knowingly communicates with such an excommunicate incurs the greater excommunication reserved to the Pope himself, if nevertheless he be a cleric and communicate in divine things. 2. When the excommunication has been passed against participants: for then he who communicates is bound by the same excommunication with which the excommunicate is entangled, from which he can be absolved only by him by whom the excommunicate can be absolved. He does not nevertheless incur this excommunication by communicating, unless a threefold admonition or one equivalent to three precede. 3. When someone communicates in the criminal crime — that is, in that crime for which a man has been excommunicated — affording him help, counsel, or favour. That I may comprehend all things in few words, there are five cases in which it is not lawful to communicate with an excommunicate, contained in these verses:

If for delicts anyone be struck with anathema, Mouth, prayer, greeting, communion, table are denied.

By mouth are forbidden words, signs, embraces, nods, letters, messages, and so forth. Prayer forbids communication in sacred things. Greeting forbids a salutation for the cause of honouring. Communion forbids cohabitation, cooperation, and counsel in any business whatsoever. Table forbids communication in food, drink, banquets, assisting and sitting together, and so forth.

By a decree of the Vicariate of the City dated October 29, 1907, it was declared unlawful under mortal guilt to sell, read, or retain the book whose title is The Program of the Modernists. By the same decree Pius X afflicted “the authors and writers and all others who in any way contributed labor to the preparation of this book with the penalty of excommunication reserved to himself alone.” The Supreme Pontiff adds [restoring a duplicated-syllable printing error from the official decree] that this decree is to have effect just as if it had been delivered into the hands of each one of the said authors and writers, and that if they are priests and exercise an act of Order, they will incur irregularity. Titius, therefore, a priest who furnished certain notes to the writers of that book, asks whether he is on that account excommunicated by name, and to what effects either of excommunication or of irregularity he would be subject if, while excommunicated, he presumed to perform priestly offices. It is requested that Titius be satisfied insofar as possible.

Titius furnished some notes for the composition of the book entitled Il programma dei modernisti with knowledge of the use to which they were to be put, as we presume. Pius X excommunicated the authors and all others who in any way helped to compose this book. Titius therefore fell under the excommunication. He wished to know whether he was excommunicated by name and to be avoided. The answer is No, for as Génicot says: “ Not every notorious excommunicated person, nor those who have merely been declared excommunicated together with other participants in the same crime by some general expression but have not been designated by their proper name or by a title equivalent to a name, are to be avoided. ” (II, 581).

Titius further wishes to know what would be the consequences of his performing priestly duties in spite of the excommunication. As being under excommunication he would commit grave sin if without necessity and without being asked to do so by the faithful, he were to administer the sacraments of his own accord. He would also commit grave sin if he were to say Mass. By solemnly exercising these functions of a priest Titius would also incur irregularity, and if he remained under censure for a whole year without seeking absolution, he would become suspect of heresy.