page_title: Excommunication
section_title: Latin Church
hierarchical_section_title: Excommunication / Christianity / Catholic Church / Latin Church
caption_attribution_description: English: reprduction of a plaque in the library of the university of Salamanca (Spain) with the following inscription: HAI EXCOMUNION / RESERVADA A SU SANTIDAD / CONTRA QUALESQUIERA PERSONAS, / QUE QUITAREN, DISTRAEXEREN, O DE QUALQUIER MODO / ENAGENAREN ALGUN LIBRO, / PERGAMINO, O PAPEL / DE ESTA BIBLIOTHECA, / SIN QUE PUEDAN SER ABSUELTAS / HASTA QUE ESTA ESTÉ PERFECTAMENTE REINTEGRADA translation to English: Excommunication is reserved to His Holiness against any person that might remove, lose or by any other means alienate any book, parchment or document of this library, without possible absolution until these (objects) be perfectly returned.Español: Reproducción de una cédula ubicada en la biblioteca de la Universidad de Salamanca (España) con la siguiente inscripción (modernizada): Hay excomunión reservada a Su Santidad contra cualesquiera personas que quitaren, distrajeren o, de cualquier modo, enajenaren algún libro, pergamino o papel de esta biblioteca sin que puedan ser absueltas hasta que esta esté perfectamente reintegrada. Deutsch: Reproduktion eines Schildes in der Bibliothek der Universität von Salamanca (Spanien) mit der folgenden Aufschrift (übersetzt): Exkommunion bleibt Seiner Heiligkeit vorbehalten gegen jede Person, die ein Buch, Pergament oder Blatt aus dieser Bibliothek entwendet, entzieht oder sonstwie entfremdet, ohne dass eine Absolution möglich wäre, bis dass diese wieder vollkommen wiedereingegliedert sind.
context_page_description: Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose of the institutional act is to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular, those of being in communion with other members of the congregation, and of receiving the sacraments.
  The term is often historically used to refer specifically to excommunications from the Catholic Church, but it is also used more generally to refer to similar types of institutional religious exclusionary practices and shunning among other religious groups. For instance, many Protestant denominations, such as the Lutheran Churches, have similar practices of excusing congregants from church communities, while Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as the Churches of Christ, use the term "disfellowship" to refer to their form of excommunication. The Amish have also been known to excommunicate members that were either seen or known for breaking rules, or questioning the church.
context_section_description: Excommunication can be either latae sententiae (automatic, incurred at the moment of committing the offense for which canon law imposes that penalty) or ferendae sententiae (incurred only when imposed by a legitimate superior or declared as the sentence of an ecclesiastical court).
   
  According to Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, "excommunication does not expel the person from the Catholic Church, but simply forbids the excommunicated person from engaging in certain activities..." 
  These activities are listed in Canon 1331 §1, and prohibit the individual from any ministerial participation in celebrating the sacrifice of the Eucharist or any other ceremonies of worship; celebrating or receiving the sacraments; or exercising any ecclesiastical offices, ministries, or functions.
  Under current Catholic canon law, excommunicates remain bound by ecclesiastical obligations such as attending Mass, even though they are barred from receiving the Eucharist and from taking an active part in the liturgy (reading, bringing the offerings, etc.). "Excommunicates lose rights, such as the right to the sacraments, but they are still bound to the obligations of the law; their rights are restored when they are reconciled through the remission of the penalty." They are urged to retain a relationship with the Church, as the goal is to encourage them to repent and return to active participation in its life.
  These are the only effects for those who have incurred a latae sententiae excommunication. For instance, a priest may not refuse Communion publicly to those who are under an automatic excommunication, as long as it has not been officially declared to have been incurred by them, even if the priest knows that they have incurred it. On the other hand, if the priest knows that excommunication has been imposed on someone or that an automatic excommunication has been declared (and is no longer merely an undeclared automatic excommunication), he is forbidden to administer Holy Communion to that person. (see canon 915).
  In the Catholic Church, excommunication is normally resolved by a declaration of repentance, profession of the Creed (if the offense involved heresy) and an Act of Faith, or renewal of obedience (if that was a relevant part of the offending act, i.e., an act of schism) by the excommunicated person and the lifting of the censure (absolution) by a priest or bishop empowered to do this. "The absolution can be in the internal (private) forum only, or also in the external (public) forum, depending on whether scandal would be given if a person were privately absolved and yet publicly considered unrepentant." Since excommunication excludes from reception of the sacraments, absolution from excommunication is required before absolution can be given from the sin that led to the censure. In many cases, the whole process takes place on a single occasion in the privacy of the confessional. For some more serious wrongdoings, absolution from excommunication is reserved to a bishop, another ordinary, or even the pope. These can delegate a priest to act on their behalf.
  Interdict is a censure similar to excommunication. It too excludes from ministerial functions in public worship and from reception of the sacraments, but not from the exercise of governance.
caption: Threat of excommunication for stealing books from the Salamanca University library
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