This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. The reason given is: Information needs to be included relating to the state of canon law since the introduction of revised codes of canon law in 1918, 1983 and 1991. (June 2017) |
This article incorporates unedited text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia. It may be out of date, or may reflect the point of view of the Catholic Church as of 1913. (July 2024) |
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In the canon law of the Catholic Church, excommunication (Lat. ex, "out of", and communio or communicatio, "communion"; literally meaning "exclusion from communion") is a form of censure. In the formal sense of the term, excommunication includes being barred not only from the sacraments but also from the fellowship of Christian baptism.[1] The principal and severest censure, excommunication presupposes guilt; and being the most serious penalty that the Catholic Church can inflict, it supposes a grave offense. The excommunicated person is considered by Catholic ecclesiastical authority as an exile from the Church, for a time at least.
Excommunication is intended to invite the person to change behaviour or attitude, repent, and return to full communion.[1] It is not an "expiatory penalty" designed to make satisfaction for the wrong done, much less a "vindictive penalty" designed solely to punish. Excommunication, which is the gravest penalty of all, is always "medicinal".[2]
Its object and its effect are loss of communion, i.e. of the spiritual benefits shared by all the members of Catholic society; hence, it can affect only those who by baptism have been admitted to that society. There can and do exist other penal measures which entail the loss of certain fixed rights; among them are other censures, e.g. suspension for clerics, and interdict. Excommunication, however, is distinguished from these penalties in that it is the privation of all rights resulting from the social status of the Catholic as such. A person who has been excommunicated—unless excommunicated for apostasy, heresy or schism—is still considered a Catholic and still has all the duties of that relationship, including attending Mass. They are, however, to refrain from receiving the Eucharist.[3]