Excommunication

==== Latin Church ====
[[File:Portrait of Martin Luther as an Augustinian Monk.jpg|thumb|left|[[Martin Luther]] was excommunicated by [[Pope Leo X]] [[Decet Romanum Pontificem|in 1521]].]]
Excommunication can be either {{lang|la|[[latae sententiae]]}} (automatic, incurred at the moment of committing the offense for which canon law imposes that penalty) or {{lang|la|ferendae sententiae}} (incurred only when imposed by a legitimate superior or declared as the sentence of an ecclesiastical court).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4V.HTM|title=Code of Canon Law, canon 1314 |publisher=Vatican.va |access-date=2012-04-03}}</ref>
[[File:Threat of excommunication to thieves of books in the library of the university of Salamanca (Spain).jpg|thumb|left|Threat of excommunication for stealing books from the [[Salamanca University]] library]]

The Catholic Church teaches in the [[Council of Trent]] that "excommunicated persons are not members of the Church, because they have been cut off by her sentence from the number of her children and belong not to her communion until they repent".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05678a.htm | title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Excommunication }}</ref>

In the papal bull {{lang|la|[[Exsurge Domine]]}} (May 16, 1520), [[Pope Leo X]] condemned [[Martin Luther|Luther]]'s twenty-third proposition according to which "excommunications are merely external punishments, nor do they deprive a man of the common spiritual prayers of the Church". [[Pope Pius VI]] in {{lang|la|[[Auctorem Fidei]]}} (August 28, 1794) condemned the notion which maintained that the effect of excommunication is only exterior because of its own nature it excludes only from exterior communion with the Church, as if, said the pope, excommunication were not a spiritual penalty binding in heaven and affecting souls.<ref name="Catholic">{{Catholic|wstitle=Excommunication|author=A. Boudinhon |inline=1}} "Canonists usually treat of excommunication in their commentaries on the Corpus Juris Canonici, at the title De sententia excommunicationis (lib. V, tit. xxxix). Moralists deal with it apropos of the treatise on censures (De Censuris). One of the best works is that of D'Annibale  Summula Theologiæ moralis (5th ed., Rome, 1908). For details consult the numerous commentaries on the Constitution Apostolicæ Sedis. Special works by ancient writers: Avila, De censuris (Lyons, 1608); Suarez, De censuris (Coimbra, 1603). Altieri, De censuris ecclesiasticis (Rome, 1618). – Cf. Kober, Der Kirchenbann (Tübingen, 1857)."</ref> The excommunicated person, being excluded from the society of the Church, still bears the indelible mark of Baptism and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Church. They are excluded from engaging in certain activities. These activities are listed in Canon 1331 §1, and prohibit the individual from any ministerial participation in celebrating the sacrifice of the Eucharist or any other ceremonies of worship; celebrating or receiving the sacraments; or exercising any ecclesiastical offices, ministries, or functions.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4X.HTM |title=Code of Canon Law, canon 1331 §1 |publisher=Vatican.va |access-date=2014-07-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080329021837/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4X.HTM |archive-date=29 March 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/epub/index.cfm|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church|work=usccb.org}}</ref>

[[File:Isabelo de los Reyes, Sr..jpg|right|thumb|[[Isabelo de los Reyes]], founder of the [[Aglipayan Church]], was excommunicated by [[Pope Leo XIII]] in 1903 as a [[Schism (religion)|schismatic]] [[apostate]].]]
Under current Catholic canon law, excommunicates remain bound by ecclesiastical obligations such as attending Mass, even though they are barred from receiving the [[Eucharist in the Catholic Church|Eucharist]] and from taking an active part in the liturgy (reading, bringing the offerings, etc.). "Excommunicates lose rights, such as the right to the sacraments, but they are still bound to the obligations of the law; their rights are restored when they are reconciled through the remission of the penalty."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JKgZEjvB5cEC&q=%22excommunicated+remain%22|title=New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law|isbn=978-0809140664|last1=Beal|first1=John P.|last2=Coriden|first2=James A.|last3=Green|first3=Thomas J.|year=2000|publisher=Paulist Press }}</ref>

These are the only effects for those who have incurred a {{lang|la|latae sententiae}} excommunication. For instance, a priest may not refuse Communion publicly to those who are under an automatic excommunication, as long as it has not been officially declared to have been incurred by them, even if the priest knows that they have incurred it—although if the person's offence was a "manifest grave sin", then the priest is obliged to refuse their communion by [[canon 915]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.zenit.org/article-34521?l=english |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130113095612/http://www.zenit.org/article-34521?l=english |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-01-13 |title=Edward McNamara, "Denying Communion to Someone" |publisher=Zenit.org |date=2012-03-27 |access-date=2013-02-02 }}</ref> On the other hand, if the priest knows that excommunication has been imposed on someone or that an automatic excommunication has been declared (and is no longer merely an undeclared automatic excommunication), he is forbidden to administer Holy Communion to that person.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P38.HTM#5T |title=1983 Code of Canon Law, canon 915 |publisher=Intratext.com |date=2007-05-04 |access-date=2013-02-02}}</ref>

In the [[Catholic Church]], excommunication is normally resolved by a declaration of [[repentance]], profession of the Creed (if the offense involved heresy) and an Act of Faith, or renewal of obedience (if that was a relevant part of the offending act, i.e., an act of [[Schism in Christianity|schism]]) by the excommunicated person and the lifting of the censure ([[absolution]]) by a priest or bishop empowered to do this. "The absolution can be in the internal (private) forum only, or also in the external (public) forum, depending on whether scandal would be given if a person were privately absolved and yet publicly considered unrepentant."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholicreference.net/index.cfm?id=31598 |author=John Hardon|title=Modern Catholic Dictionary "Absolution from censure" |publisher=Catholicreference.net |access-date=2012-04-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323035104/http://www.catholicreference.net/index.cfm?id=31598 |archive-date=23 March 2012 }}</ref>