The Irish standard., 1908-02-08
The WORD DEFINED
What is Really Meant by Ex-
communication.
"A Penalty Carrying With 1t
Terrible Consequences.

The word Accommodation" !las
been in the air lately, but not all have
clearly understood what the term
means, says the Catholic Home Jour-
nal. We have met with Catholics
even whose notions on the subject are
s dim and hazy, and we may therefore be
doing them and others a service IT we
state the salient points of the teaching
Of theology on this subject.
The Church, as all the world knows.
! IL a body corporate, and enacts laws
for its maintenance and welfare. To
enforce these laws. sanctions are re-
quired, and among the sanctions en-
ployed by those responsible for tho
government Of the Church are included
what are technically called ''censures." !"
Censure may. be defined as a spiritual
penalty, imposed for the correction and
amendment of offenders, by which a
baptized person who has committed a
crime and is contunlacious Is deprived
by ecclesiastical authority of the use Of
. certain spiritual advantages. A censure
therefore presupposes not only guilt,
but obstinacy. and, moreover, affects
only those who by baptism have be-
cone subjects of the Church.
The crime which is visited with such
a grave penalty must evidently be it,
self grave. Common sense tells us that
punishment must not be disproportion-
ate to the offense, rather punishment
"must fit the crime" Hence theolo-
CLANS assert that to incur censure
the crime must be a mortal sin, either
of it's own nature or on account of the
proba bility Of dangerous consequences,
such as scandal or schism, or, again.
because those in authority may have
an important end in view in dealing
thus severely with a particular matter,
and their wishes under the circum-
stances must be respected. Further,
the crime must be external. Internal
crimes belong to the forum interum"
Of the tribunal Of penance, whereas the
forum externum' takes cognizance OF
public acts only. Lastly, the crime
must not be merely plotted, premsdi-
tated or designed, but must have been
carried into execution-ln a word. II
must be an accomplished fact.
A further restriction to the imposi-
tion of a censure exists in the fact that
the authority in whose hands such
power is vested is required to give the
delinquent due warning. Canon law
indeed requires triple warning, or at
least one which it must be expressly
stated is meant to take the place of
three. In case the censure is incurred
by a delinquent on the commission of
an act ipso facto, the law already pro-
mulgated is considered a standing and
sufficient warning, though even in this
case the culprit commonly receives a
personal warning, that he may have
the opportunity Of defending himself If
he chooses.
Censures are divided into excom-
munications, suspensions and inter-
diets. We are dealing with the first
of these only, and with that special
form Of it in which the offender has
been excommunicated publicly and by
name. Excommunication, then, is an
ecclesiastical censure by which a SUBJ
ject is cut off from the communion Of
the Church and deprived of the BENEFITS
of fellowship. He becomes, In the
eyes of the Church, as heathen and q
publican. ''If he will not hear the
Church, let him be to thee as the
heathen and the publican (Matt. xviii,
I'D But what is meant precisely by
being cut off from the Church? To
answer this question we must distin-
guish between those who belong to the
soul and those who belong to the body
of the Church. The aggregate of those
who are living on the earth at any par
ticular moment in the state OF grace
belong to the soul; the aggregate Of
those who are i'll external and visible
union with the Sovereign Pontiff be-
long to the body. Those, consequently,
( who are in the soul of the Church may
not be in the body. and those. con-
versely, who are in the body may not
be in the soul. For all mortal sins
exclude from the soul of the Church,
hut only those mortal sins which incur
a censure exclude also from the body.
Tt may, perhaps. seem strange to say
that an excommunica,ed person may
still belong to the soul of the Church.
sit is a very exceptional case, we admit,
but We have only to bear in mind that