When and for what reasons does the Pope have the right to legitimately excommunicate members of the Church?
Upvote:0
When and for what reasons does the Pope have the right to legitimately excommunicate members of the Church?
First of all the pope can exorcise his absolute authority within the Catholic Church in an unhindered manner according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
882 The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, "is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful." "For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered."
The pope has to follow the the rules for excommunicating any Catholic faithful from communion of the Catholic Church as any other prelate of the Church!
In the Latin Church, Canon Law describes two forms of excommunication. The first is sententiae ferendae. This is where the person excommunicated is subject to a canonical process or trial, and if found guilty of misdemeanours meriting excommunication is duly sentenced. Once the sentence is published, that person is barred from active participation as a member of the Catholic Church. But this is a rare event.
The more common excommunication is that termed latae sentential, or what sometimes called often "automatic excommunication", where someone, in committing a certain act, incurs the penalty without any canonical process having to take place.[20] If the law or precept expressly establishes it, however, a penalty is latae sententiae, so that it is incurred ipso facto when the delict is committed.(Ca. 1314)
Sententiae ferendae
A person may be ferendae sententiae (i.e., upon judicial review) excommunicated if he
tries to celebrate the Mass without being a priest (incurs, for Latin Catholics, also a latae sententiae interdict for laymen and suspension for clerics, can. 1378 § 2 no. 1 CIC, can. 1443 CCEO),
hears a Confession or tries to absolve without being able to absolve (for Latin Catholics; this does not, of course, include hindrances on the penitent's side for the mere hearing of the Confessions, and hidden hindrances on the penitent's side for absolutions; can. 1378 § 2 no. 1; incurs also a latae sententiae interdict for laymen and suspension for clerics)
breaks the Seal of the Confessional indirectly (?) or as someone not the Confessor, e. g. an interpreter or one who overheard something that was said (for Latin Catholics, can. 1388 § 2 CIC),
who breaks a penal law allowing excommunication that was enacted on local level, which the local authority, however, may only do with great caution and for grave offences (for Latin Catholics, can. 1318 CIC).
omits stubbornly, as an Eastern Catholic priest, the commemoration of the hierarch in the Divine Liturgy and Divine Praises (not mandatorily, can. 1438 CCEO)
commits physical violence against a patriarch or a metropolitan, as an Eastern Catholic (can. 1445 § 1 CCEO),
incites sedition against any hierarch, especially a patriarch or the Pope, as an Eastern Catholic (can. 1447 § 1, not mandatorily),
commits murder, as an Eastern Catholic (can. 1450 § 1 CCEO),
kidnaps, wounds seriously, mutilates or tortures (physically or mentally) a person, as an Eastern Catholic (can. 1451 CCEO, not mandatorily),
falsely accuses someone of a [canonical] offence, as an Eastern Catholic (can. 1454 CCEO, not mandatorily),
tries to use the influence of secular authority to gain admission to Holy Orders or any function in the Church, as an Eastern Catholic (can. 1460, not mandatorily),
administers or receives a Sacrament, excluding Holy Orders, or any function in the Church through simony, as an Eastern Catholic (can. 1461f. CCEO, not mandatorily).
Latae sententiae
The 1983 Code of Canon Law attaches the penalty of (automatic excommunication) to the following actions:
Apostates, heretics, and schismatics (can. 1364)
Desecration of the Eucharist (can. 1367)
A person who physically attacks the pope (can. 1370)
A priest who in confession absolves a partner with whom they have violated the sixth commandment (can. 977, can. 1378)
A bishop who consecrates another bishop without papal mandate (can. 1382)
A priest who violates the seal of the confessional (can. 1388)
A person who procures an abortion (can. 1398)
Accomplices who were needed to commit an action that has an automatic excommunication penalty (can. 1329)
Generally speaking, automatic excommunications are not known to the public. Unless the individual committed the action in a public manner that would cause the local ordinary to issue a statement about the automatic excommunication, the burden is on the offender to confess the sin and seek the removal of the penalty.
Pope’s must follow the very rules that the pope’s have written down in the Code of Canon Law!
Upvote:4
One must be tried and judged guilty to incur a ferendæ sententiæ excommunication.
In that quote you give, where it says "I forbid under the pain of excommunication…," this refers to the conditions of a ferendæ sententiæ excommunication. One "incurs it only when the judge has summoned him before his tribunal, declared him guilty, and punished him according to the terms of the law." (source).
Some Background on Excommunications
For those Catholics in his jurisdiction, a bishop can
- perform a ferendæ sententiæ excommunication
or
declare that someone has excommunicated himself by having performed the excommunicable offense itself, in the case of latæ sententiæ excommunications.
For a recent example of latæ sententiæ excommunication that the bishop publicly acknowledged/declared, see the 2010 excommunication of Sister Margaret McBride of Phoenix, Arizona.
See also: "Who can excommunicate?"
However, a superior can annul the excommunication of an inferior, as then-Card. Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, did for Bp. Joseph Ferrario's excommunications of the so-called "[Hawaii Six][4]" in 1991. Here is Cardinal Ratzinger's letter:
Now, a pope has no superior, save God alone. However, a subsequent pope can lift excommunications, as Benedict XVI did in 2009 for the Society of St. Pius X bishops whom John Paul II declared excommunicated in 1988.
More post
- 📝 What's "reciprocal subsidiarity"?
- 📝 Did the ancient Egyptians worship a God named Yah long before God revealed his name to Moses?
- 📝 What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the Thomistic understanding of vocation?
- 📝 Which verses in the Bible say that God is omniscient?
- 📝 How does the "church" reconcile breaking the 2nd commandments religiously?
- 📝 How do Christians in support of gay marriage interpret anti-gay Bible verses?
- 📝 How do Continuationists explain the fact that the vast majority of Christians have never personally experienced "overtly miraculous" spiritual gifts?
- 📝 Why the Western European style names?
- 📝 Are tongues a sign for believers or unbelievers?
- 📝 How do literalists envision the size of New Jerusalem?
- 📝 Did St. Paul confess his sins in person?
- 📝 What is the Calvinist and Hyper-Calvinist understanding of the "whosoever will" from Rev. 22:17?
- 📝 Do angels pray for us?
- 📝 Are there different views on the nature or/and understanding of the Trinity among Trinitarians?
- 📝 How did Isidore of Seville become the patron saint of the Internet and computer programmers?
- 📝 What do Bible lexicons, like Strong's, mean when they use the phrase, "by extension"?
- 📝 What is the biblical justification for allowing only male pastors?
- 📝 Did John Wycliffe accept extreme unction?
- 📝 The Christology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- 📝 If Jesus' ministry was to the Jews, why did He go to Syria?
- 📝 What is the Catholic explanation as to why God has revealed himself in "male" terms?
- 📝 Did Judas play an important role for God’s salvation?
- 📝 Where did the idea of the inerrancy of the King James Bible come from?
- 📝 What is biblical theology?
- 📝 How do Christians apply the Parable of the Ten Virgins to their lives?
- 📝 How do I discern righteous guilt from false guilt?
- 📝 Was Peter part of a militant sect?
- 📝 Catholicism - Consequences of not believing in all dogmas
- 📝 Why Moses is not Sargon I?
- 📝 Non-Christian scholars who believe in the attributed authorship of the Gospels
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 When and for what reasons does the Pope have the right to legitimately excommunicate members of the Church?
- 📝 What reasons does the Bible give for why the tribe of Levi was chosen to have the priesthood and temple duties?
- 📝 For Catholics who have expressed concern about Pope Francis and are wary of his pontificate, what are the key issues?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church have a contingency plan for the case that the pope and all cardinals are dead?
- 📝 What does the Bible say about this question- Why do Jesus and God have two seats in heaven when they are the same God?
- 📝 What is the nature of the theory for Pope Joan and the evidence that substantiates it?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church teach that it has the authority to change what is morally right and wrong?
- 📝 Does everything happen for a reason, and what is the biblical support for the different views?
- 📝 When and where does the statement, "Christ paid the penalty for our sins" first appear?
- 📝 Since when did the Catholic church accept Protestant baptism, and what was the original rationale for accepting?
- 📝 What is consumerism and what does the Pope see wrong with it?
- 📝 What rules does the Catholic Church have for venerating crosses/crucifixes on Good Friday?
- 📝 What privileges and powers does the Prophet of the LDS Church have in his office as Seer?
- 📝 What does the chaining and locking of Satan in the bottomless pit for the millennial reign accomplish?
- 📝 What does the Nicene Creed mean when it says that the Father and the Son are of the same substance?
- 📝 What is the proper title for someone who was a pope and is now canonized as a saint?
- 📝 When the Pope says "We commend to the Lord the souls..." what does it mean exactly? It it a symbolic gesture, a prayer, something else?
- 📝 What does it mean when Archbishop Ganswein stated that Pope Benedict XVI expanded the Petrine Ministry?
- 📝 When was the term 'substitutionary atonement' first coined and what was the reason for the choice of the 2 words?
- 📝 What is the basis for the belief "It is possible to have free-will and be incapable of sinning, but it is not possible to be created in that state"?
- 📝 What does the Church say about the statements that the Pope Benedict XVI made in the book "God and the World"?
- 📝 What does it mean for Christ to have been slain before the creation of the world?
- 📝 Which Prominent Modern Religions Came from the "Great Awakenings" and What Have They Done For the World?
- 📝 Does the nature of God's love for us include what we humans would call "constant, strong, and genuine affection"? (Catholic)
- 📝 When was it claimed for the first time in Church history that the offices of apostle and prophet have ceased?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for the belief that the Lord Jesus Christ DOES have blood in his incorruptible body?
- 📝 What does it mean when Jesus cannot be separated from the Father and the Holy Ghost?
- 📝 What degree of authority does the Pope hold to reveal and declare doctrine, or the word of God?
- 📝 What is the difference between a missionary and an apologist when it comes to proselytizing for the Christian faith?
- 📝 What details does the Bible have about Jesus' birth and childhood?