Persons Concerned in Excommunication

The right of excommunicating is lawfully exercised only by those who hold the greater and more general judicial power inthe Church, that is, bishops and major prelates.

It can happen that the major jurisdiction required forex communicating should exist in one who is not a bishop, or even a priest, as, for example, in a papal legate who is a layman, or in a designated bishop-elect who has not yet been ordained to the priesthood.

A person who is himself excommunicated, or one who is a cleric suspended from ecclesiastical office, cannot excommunicate. Such persons, being deprived of jurisdiction by the penalty imposed on themselves, cannot exercise that jurisdiction over others.

Excommunication is a penalty imposed by a superior. Therefore, a person cannot excommunicate himself, his equal, or his superior.

Excommunication is never imposed on a group as such,although each member of a group may be excommunicated individually at the same time.

A person may labor under multiple excommunication, forthis penalty may be imposed as often as serious reasons demand it. The effect of a second, third, and fourth excommunication is toremovethe excommunicated person further and further from the spiritual helps which the Church gives her children in her general prayers and good works.