How do you become excommunicated from the Catholic Church?
I have a friend who was raised Catholic and thinks it would be really funny to have a letter from the Catholic Church stating that he is excommunicated. So do such letters exist and what is the easiest way to get one?
For all practical purposes a simple lay person will never actually be formally excommunicated and won’t ever get a letter.
It is relatively easy to incur an automatic excommunication – assisting someone in procuring an abortion would do it for sure, but no letter.
Formal excommunication is used primarily for theologians and clergy who teach heresy. Even then, they need to do it pretty publicly to get attention, and then there will be reviews and hearings and advocates etc. It’s a long process.
Formal excommunication could conceivably and possibly may be used on prominent Catholic politicians who support abortion. But one major reason that hasn’t been done so far, is that typically lay people who don’t have Phds. in Theology haven’t been excommunicated formally in decades.
Sorry
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May 18 2010 11:57 am | Catholic
Torg T. Robot on 18 May 2010 at 5:20 pm #
If you are a priest, get married. Maybe you can convert to Islam? It might be difficult because they will keep trying to forgive you.
Torg
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FROG E on 18 May 2010 at 5:30 pm #
go to
http://www.newadvent.org
link to excommunication
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Ronie on 18 May 2010 at 6:06 pm #
megadeth – go to hell
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anotherone773 on 18 May 2010 at 6:34 pm #
Well we know you cant get one by molesting alter boys. You usually get promoted for that. You would have to go against the church in some way.Being an open homosexual who has an abortion might be a good start.
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Atheist
Lilith on 18 May 2010 at 6:43 pm #
It is actually very difficult to do today and excommunication is reserved almost completely for clergy who are preaching what the church considers false doctrine. Even then it is a long drawn out process with many warning and much counseling before it takes place. Contrary to common believe divorced Catholics are not excommunicated.
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GNW_Paul on 18 May 2010 at 7:27 pm #
For all practical purposes a simple lay person will never actually be formally excommunicated and won’t ever get a letter.
It is relatively easy to incur an automatic excommunication – assisting someone in procuring an abortion would do it for sure, but no letter.
Formal excommunication is used primarily for theologians and clergy who teach heresy. Even then, they need to do it pretty publicly to get attention, and then there will be reviews and hearings and advocates etc. It’s a long process.
Formal excommunication could conceivably and possibly may be used on prominent Catholic politicians who support abortion. But one major reason that hasn’t been done so far, is that typically lay people who don’t have Phds. in Theology haven’t been excommunicated formally in decades.
Sorry
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robert C on 18 May 2010 at 7:43 pm #
one has to publicly preach a heresy or do an act that is seriously against church teaching, enough to cause a scandal.
but one does not have to receive a letter, one is automatically excommunicated .
the beauty is that once repentant and publicly stating one was wrong , one can be received back into the fold.
letters do exist by the way
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Matt on 18 May 2010 at 8:05 pm #
No, it wouldn’t be very funny.
The types of things you do to get excommunicated are pretty horrible and tasteless. It would take a very major act of disgusting disrespect for the Church or a member of the clergy combined with no remorse.
Again, the question itself is disturbing. It is just about as funny as saying it would be funny to be a registered sex offender, a convicted murderer, or a traitor to your country.
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Daver on 18 May 2010 at 8:21 pm #
<<How do you become excommunicated from the Catholic Church?>>
EXCOMMUNICATION – An ecclesiastical censure by which one is more or less excluded from communion with the faithful. It is also called anathema, especially if it is inflicted with formal solemnities on persons notoriously obstinate to reconciliation. Some excommunicated persons are vitandi (to be avoided), others tolerati (tolerate). No one is vitandus unless that person has been publicly excommunicated by name by the Holy See, and it is expressly stated that the person is "to be avoided," Anyone who lays violent hands on the Pope is automatically vitandus.
In general, the effects of excommunication affect the person’s right to receive the sacraments, or Christian burial, until the individual repents and is reconciled with the Church. In order for an excommunication to take effect, the person must have been objectively guilty of the crime charged. (Etym. Latin ex-, from + communicare, to communicate: excommunicatio, exclusion from a community.)
<<I have a friend who was raised Catholic and thinks it would be really funny to have a letter from the Catholic Church stating that he is excommunicated.>>
That isn’t how it works. Excommunication is AUTOMATIC. He’s not going to get a letter.
<<So do such letters exist and what is the easiest way to get one?>>
These letters do not exist. If excommunicated, he’s not going to get a letter.
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sparki777 on 18 May 2010 at 8:49 pm #
No, there is no letter.
People generally excommunicate themselves. Anything official is an invitation to return to the Church and make things right.
And this idea isn’t funny at all.
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answer4you on 18 May 2010 at 8:54 pm #
There is nothing funny about losing the chance/possibility of salvation…
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Soundra on 18 May 2010 at 9:37 pm #
You should take a more aggressive stance. Quit paying money to the church and send them a letter via local newspaper that you are excommunicating the church. I wonder how many letters they get.
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