{"id":152650,"date":"2014-09-02T05:00:37","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T09:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-can-you-explain-excommunication\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T15:22:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:22:51","slug":"ask-a-priest-can-you-explain-excommunication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-can-you-explain-excommunication\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAsk a Priest: Can you explain excommunication?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<address>Q: I&#8217;m having a slight problem understanding why the Church can excommunicate sinners when the sin is grave enough, yet the Church does not condemn Judas who betrayed Jesus. I understand that no one can know the heart of another, except God. I truly believe the same way, and I&#8217;m having trouble understanding why we need canon lawyers when only God knows our hearts? -M.O.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/p>\n<p>A: It&#8217;s good to remember that excommunication is meant to be corrective rather than punitive. That is, it is a penalty that is meant to send a strong signal to someone that he needs to change his ways and repent.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/quizlet.com\/1520904\/glossary-to-the-catechism-of-the-catholic-church-flash-cards\/\">glossary of the Catechism<\/a> defines excommunication as: &#8220;A severe ecclesiastical penalty, resulting from grave crimes against the Catholic religion, imposed by ecclesiastical authority or incurred as a direct result of the commission of an offense. Excommunication excludes the offender from taking part in the Eucharist or other sacraments and from the exercise of any ecclesiastical office, ministry, or function.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>By the penalty of excommunication, the Church does not condemn anyone. As you mention, God alone knows the heart of each person. What the Church does do, and can do by the authority given it by God, is teach that certain types of objective offenses are so serious that they effectively cut off a person from the sacraments and from the exercise of Church office or ministries, etc. Put another way, excommunication is a kind of teaching tool. The lesson it teaches in this case is a severe one.<\/p>\n<p>Excommunication, then, is not a case of canon lawyers &#8220;reading a person&#8217;s heart.&#8221; That is not the point of the penalty. Moreover, it is not up to canon lawyers to decide what constitutes an excommunicable offense. That is decided by the magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church that comprises the Pope and the bishops. Canon lawyers might help shed light on certain points, but they are ultimately at the service of the Church. And again, the Church gets its authority from God. So it&#8217;s a false dilemma to say that somehow canon lawyers have as much say as the Almighty.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of Judas, true, the Church hasn&#8217;t ruled on his destiny. God alone knows that. At any rate, excommunication is designed to help the living, who have the chance to repent. It doesn&#8217;t apply to the dead, whose days of decision are over. I hope this helps. God bless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: I&#8217;m having a slight problem understanding why the Church can excommunicate sinners when the sin is grave enough, yet the Church does not condemn Judas who betrayed Jesus. 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Edward McIlmail, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC"},"description":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC, ordained to the priesthood in 2001, taught theology and Scripture at the then Mater Ecclesiae College in Rhode Island and is now a part-time chaplain at Overbrook Academy in Greenville, R.I. He holds degrees from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut, the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum in Rome, and Northwestern University in Illinois. He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith &amp; Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152650"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=152650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}