Excommunication

Excommunication means: (a) separation from the family of the faithful; (b) loss of the right to share in the prayers and general good works of the Church; (c) loss of the right to receive the sacraments.

The Church imposes this stern penalty ofexcommunication only when the reasons demanding it are most grave. And the Church always hopes that her stern action will humble the pride of the person excommunicated, and so bring him to repentance and amendment, and thus win him back to his place among her children. The Church hopes also, by imposing the censure ofexcommunication, to prevent or lessen the bad effect exercised on others by the excommunicated person’s evil example.

The reason for excommunication is always a grave sin,in which the sinner is obstinate. Sometimes even temporal things can enter into grave and stubbornly persistent sin; bodily integrity, for instance, or liberty, or valuable property. And soit is possible that a person may incur excommunication for inflicting even temporal harm.

Excommunication is effective; that is, it produces the sad effects mentioned in the first paragraph above. However, it isnot actually effective if it should be imposed by mistake or error.