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 is the meaning of the large statue of a pine cone in Vatican City?
- 📝 What's the moral of John 12:3-8? (Mary anointing Jesus's feet)
- 📝 Do Catholics have to request a religious exception for matters of conscience from their parish priest?
- 📝 Reading "Mere Christianity" and having a hard time with book III, chapter 12
- 📝 Meaning of cross with Jesus on both sides
- 📝 If someone is forced to take the punishment for sin (Jesus), doesn't that mean that God never forgives?
- 📝 What are the historical arguments against a literal interpretation of Luke 22:44?
- 📝 What does it mean to be an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ?
- 📝 What is a good reference to explain the different protestant sects and denominations?
- 📝 Can a non-Catholic receive Baptism (to formally marry a Catholic), without converting to the Catholic faith?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church officially recognize Protestants as Christians?
- 📝 What is a "Pentecostal Catholic"?
- 📝 If the Bible contains all of the word of God and there can be no more, then why do we need the Nicene Creed?
- 📝 Why did Martin Luther reject the idea of the priesthood (sacerdotalism)?
- 📝 Psalms 2:6 - Jesus and being set upon Zion
- 📝 What is the mainline Protestant understanding of "unceasing prayer"?
- 📝 Did Chesterton ever explain why he did not formally become a Catholic until long after he had starting thinking and writing for Catholics?
- 📝 Is John saying that Christ is God and eternal?
- 📝 What was the real cause of the split between the Greek Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for claims that certain manifestations are not of the Holy Spirit but counterfeits (e.g. Kundalini awakening)?
- 📝 Who Were Mark and Luke?
- 📝 Was it possible for Catholics to express their faith openly in England during the time of persecution?
- 📝 Were any popes or patriarchs converts to Christianity?
- 📝 How to reconcile Kierkegaard's model of worship with Existential authenticity?
- 📝 Is Romans 1:26 a reference to female h*m*sexuality?
- 📝 Where can I find the Orthodox response to the Augsburg Confession?
- 📝 Hebrew New Testament with cantillation marks
- 📝 When was the first time God promised eternal life in the Bible?
- 📝 Does any denomination believe that Jesus left something in writing?
- 📝 Am I a party to the covenant of atonement?
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?