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Revision as of 14:40, 3 November 2003 by DJ Clayworth (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Excommunication is religious censure intended to deprive one of membership of a religious community and, in the Catholic context, preclude the excommunicated from salvation. Excommunication is called "disfellowshipping" in Jehovah's Witnesses.
In Catholic Christianity
Excommunication is considered automatic for some sins within the Catholic church, but can also be a formal affair, generally reserved for renegade clerygymen and such.
The word literally means "out of communion"; the outward sign of this loss of community involves barring the person from participating in Communion, i.e., receiving the Eucharist, and as a consequence losing their status as members of the church. Certain other rights and privileges normally resulting from membership of the church are revoked. In Eastern Orthodoxy, a person may also be barred from receiving the Eucharist. In this context however, this merely changes the member's classification in the parish from 'faithful' to 'penitent'. Excommunication is often intended to be only temporary, a "medicinal" procedure intended to provoke repentance. In the Roman Catholic church excommunication is usually terminated by repentance and absolution. For minor excommunications the absolution may be pronounced by an confessor (a Priest). More serious offences must be absolved by a more senior official.
Automatic excommunication
There are seven sins for which Catholics are automatically excommunicated:
- Apostasy, Heresy, or Schism
- Desecration of the Eucharist
- Physical force against the Pontiff
- One who actually procures an abortion and all accomplices
- Priest who absolves a partner in adultery
- Priest who directly violates the sacramental seal of confession
- Both parties to the consecration of a bishop without a pontifical mandate
In Mormon theology
Excommunication is also practiced in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the "Mormons"). It is reserved only for serious sins such as adultery. It need not be a permanent state; excommunicated members may become bona fide members again once they have worked through a sincere repentance.
In Judaism
Cherem is the highest ecclesiastical censure in the Jewish community. It is the total exclusion of a person from the Jewish community. Except in rare cases in the Ultra-Orthodox community, cherem stopped existing after The Enlightenment, when local Jewish communities lost their political autonomy, and Jews were integrated into the greater gentile nations which they lived in. A fuller discussion of this subject is available in the cherem article.