Has the Catholic Church changed which sins incur excommunication?

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Accepted answer

The 1917 Code of Canon Law lists several delicts which incur excommunication, some of which are no longer mentioned in the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Listed below are the 1917 canons and their 1983 equivalents (if any), so you can see which declicts were removed in the 1983 Code:

Canon 2314 (1983 CIC 1364):

§ 1. All apostates from the Christian faith and each and every heretic or schismatic:

1.° Incur by that fact excommunication;

Canon 2318 (NA):

§ 1. Publishers of the books of apostates, heretics, and schismatics that propagate apostasy, heresy, and schism incur by that fact excommunication specially reserved to the Apostolic See upon the publication being released, and likewise those defending these books or others prohibited by name in apostolic letters, [as do those who] knowingly and without required permission read and retain them.

§ 2. Authors and publishers who, without the required permission, run off printings of the books of sacred Scripture and notations and commentaries thereon incur by that fact excommunication reserved to no one.

Canon 2320 (1983 CIC 1367)

Whoever throws away the consecrated species or who takes or retains them for an evil purpose is suspected of heresy; such a one incurs automatic excommunication reserved most specially to the Apostolic See; such a one is by that fact infamous, and a cleric, moreover, is to be deposed.

Canon 2322 (1983 CIC 1378–79)

Regarding those not promoted to sacerdotal orders:

1.° If they simulate the celebration of Mass or the hearing of confessions, they incur upon that fact excommunication specially reserved to the Apostolic See; if such a one is, moreover, a layman, he is deprived of any pension or responsibility that he might have in the Church and is to be punished with other penalties according to the gravity of the fault; a cleric is deposed;

Canon 2326 (NA)

Whoever concocts false relics or who knowingly sells them or distributes or puts them up for the public veneration of the faithful incurs upon that fact excommunication reserved to the Ordinary.

Canon 2332 (1983 CIC 1372)

Each and every one of whatever status, grade, or condition, even if he is regal, episcopal, or cardinalitial, appealing from the laws, decrees, or mandates of the Roman Pontiff existing at that time to a Universal Council, is suspected of heresy and by that fact incurs excommunication specially reserved to the Apostolic See; but Universities, Colleges, Chapters, and other moral persons, by whatever name they are called, incur interdict equally specially reserved to the Apostolic See.

Canon 2335 (1983 CIC 1374)

Those giving their name to masonic sects or other associations of this sort that machinate against the Church or legitimate civil powers contract by that fact excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See.

Canon 2338 (NA)

§ 1. Those presuming to absolve, without the required faculty, from automatic excommunication specially or most specially reserved to the Apostolic See incur upon that fact excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See.

§ 2. Those offering any sort of help or favor to a banned excommunicate in the delict for which he was excommunicated, and likewise clerics who knowingly and freely communicate in divine things with same and receive [the offender] in divine offices, incur upon that fact excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See.

Canon 2339 (NA)

Whoever dares to order or force the ecclesiastical burial of infidels, apostates from the faith, or heretics, schismatics, or others, whether excommunicated or interdicted, against the prescription of Canon 1240, § 1, contracts automatic excommunication reserved to no one; but those giving them burial on their own [contract] interdict from entering churches reserved to the Ordinary.

Canon 2341 (NA)

If anyone dares, against the prescription of Canon 120, to drag before a lay judge a Cardinal of the H. R. C2555. or a Legate of the Apostolic See or a major Official of the Roman Curia for matters pertaining to their duties, or their own Ordinary, he contracts upon that fact excommunication specially reserved to the Apostolic See; if [it concerns] another Bishop, even merely titular, or an Abbot or Prelate of no one or another supreme Superior of a religious [institute] of pontifical right, [he contracts] automatic excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See; and finally, if not having obtained permission from the local Ordinary, [one does likewise] with another person enjoying the privilege of the forum, [then, if] a cleric, he incurs upon that fact suspension from office reserved to the Ordinary, while a layman shall be punished with an appropriate penalty for the gravity of the fault by his own Ordinary.

Canon 2343 (1983 CIC 1370) 

§ 1. Whoever lays violent hands on the person of the Roman Pontiff:

1.°      Contracts automatic excommunication most specially reserved to the Apostolic See; and is by that fact banned;

2.°      Is infamous by the law;

3.°      [If] a cleric, he shall be degraded.

§ 2. Whoever [does likewise] to the person of a Cardinal of the H. R. C2559. or Legate of the Roman Pontiff:

1.°      Incurs automatic excommunication specially reserved to the Apostolic See;

2.°      Is by the law infamous;

3.°      Is deprived of benefices, offices, dignities, pensions, and any sort of responsibility if he had one in the Church.

§ 3. Whoever [does likewise] to the person of a Patriarch, Archbishop, Bishop, even if only a titular one, incurs automatic excommunication specially reserved to the Apostolic See.

§ 4. Whoever [does likewise] to the person of other clerics or to religious of either sex is upon that fact subjected to excommunication reserved to his own Ordinary, who shall punish such a one with other penalties, if the matter requires it, according to his prudent judgment.

Canon 2350 (1983 CIC 1398)

§ 1. Procurers of abortion, the mother not excepted, incur, upon the effect being secured, automatic excommunication reserved to the Ordinary, and if they are clerics, they are also deposed.

Canon 2360 (1983 CIC 1391)

§ 1. All fabricators or falsifiers of letters, decrees, or rescripts of the Apostolic See, or those knowingly using such letters, decrees, or rescripts, incur by that fact excommunication specially reserved to the Apostolic See.

Canon 2363 (1983 CIC 1390)

Whoever personally or through others falsely denounces to Superiors a confessor of the crime of solicitation by that fact incurs excommunication reserved specially to the Apostolic See, from which case he cannot be absolved until the false denunciation is retracted formally and the damages that might have flowed therefrom are repaired to the best of one’s ability, and grave and long-lasting penances are also imposed, with due regard for the prescription of Canon 894.

Canon 2367 (1983 CIC 1378)

§ 1. One absolving or pretending to absolve an accomplice in a sin of turpitude incurs by that fact excommunication most specially reserved to the Apostolic See; likewise, [he incurs this penalty] even [acting] in danger of death, if there is another priest, even though not approved for confessions, who could, without grave danger or infamy or scandal arising, hear the confession of the dying one, except in the case where the one dying refuses to be confessed by the other.

Canon 2368 (1983 CIC 1387)

§ 2. But the faithful who knowingly omit to denounce him by whom they were solicited within one month against the prescription of Canon 904 incur automatic excommunication reserved to no one, and shall not be absolved until after satisfying the obligation or seriously promising to satisfy it.

Canon 2372 (NA)

They incur upon the fact a suspension from divine things, reserved to the Apostolic See, who presume to receive orders from one excommunicated or suspended or interdicted after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or from a notorious apostate, heretic, or schismatic; but whoever in good faith was ordained by such a one as these lacks the exercise of the orders thus received until he is dispensed.

Canon 2385 (NA)

With due regard for the prescription of Canon 646, a religious abandoning religious life incurs by the law itself excommunication reserved to his own major Superior or, if it is a non-exempt lay religious, to the Ordinary of the place where he is, is excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical acts, and is deprived of all the privileges of his religious [institute]; and if he leaves again, he perpetually lacks active and passive voice and must be punished by the Superiors with other penalties for the gravity of the fault according to the norm of the constitutions.

Canon 2388 (1983 CIC 1394)

§ 1. Clerics constituted in sacred [orders] or regulars, or nuns after a solemn vow of chastity, and likewise all those who presume to contract even a civil marriage with any of the aforesaid persons incur automatic excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See; clerics moreover, having been warned, if they do not come back to their senses within a time defined by the Ordinary according to the diversity of circumstances, will be degraded, with due regard for the prescription of Canon 188, n. 5.

§ 2. But for those professed of simple perpetual vows, whether to an Ordinary or to a religious Congregation, all of them, as above, receive excommunication automatically reserved to the Ordinary.

Canon 2392 (NA)

With due regard for the prescription of Canon 729, perpetrators of the delict of simony in any office, benefice, or ecclesiastical dignity:

1.°      Incur automatic excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See;

Canon 2405 (NA)

A Vicar Capitulary or any others, whether within the Chapter or outside of it, who carry off, destroy, hide, or substantially mutilate any document pertaining to the episcopal Curia, either personally or through another, incur automatic excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See and can also be struck by the Ordinary with deprivation of office or benefice.

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