You can't just fill out an online form and get a certificate of excommunication, after all. Catholic officials may be hoping that former Catholics will eventually fear death enough to seek some sort of reconciliation with the Church.
Until then, your name is used to indirectly contribute to the stature and power of the Catholic Church because they can report you as a member, thus boosting their perceived popularity among American religions. Aside from denying the Catholic Church any more power than it deserves, there are a number of good reasons why a former Catholic should formally renounce their ties that organization.
It is possible to be excommunicated in a specific, official pronouncement, but this is rarely done. More relevant is latae sententiae excommunication, or automatic excommunication, which can occur for the following reasons according to canon law:.
These can only be committed by a priest or bishop, so you can't use them. Excommunication isn't worth assaulting the pope, so this is out. Desecrating a consecrated host isn't as bad as assaulting a pope, but it's unlikely that you'd find a way to do this.
That leaves one option:. You need to still be some sort of religious theist to be a heretic or schismatic, so if you are a secular atheist your only option is apostasy. There is one more basis for excommunication:. So if one person does something that leads to automatic excommunication, any accomplices that were necessary to the act and who can have the penalty imposed upon them can also be excommunicated.
Your Faith. Share this story. Dear Fr. Joe: What do you have to do to be excommunicated? So, what are these acts? Why would she automatically excommunicate someone? So was Napoleon, after he annexed Rome. But clergy also feature prominently on the list of famous excommunicants. Even Saint Mary MacKillop was excommunicated for a short time, which gives her pre-canonisation biography some frisson.
Renegade nun becomes saint. The ultimate comeback story! For those who might struggle to conquer Rome, or release blasphemous hit singles, do not despair. Because common folk can also qualify, sometimes en masse. Which suggests that there might be millions of us walking around, excommunicated without even knowing it.
Excommunicated Catholics are still Catholic. Bad Catholics, sure; but Catholics. If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity! Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Did you ever attend a Catholic party and observe many attendees getting drunk… even the priest. Words that I have difficulty are excommunication, indulgences, consecrated grounds, original sin, annulments and Purgatory.
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