• King John of England, excommunicated in 1208 by Pope Innocent III after refusing to accept Cardinal Stephen Langdon as the pope's choice for Archbishop of Canterbury. Recently a series of stories burbled through the mainstream media suggesting that Nancy Pelosi has been excommunicated or denied Communion by the Vatican. For John this was a serious blow to his ability to rule the country as it absolved the King's subjects from their oaths of alliegance, gave the Barons reason to revolt and allowed the King of France to invade England to remove John from power. Does the pope excommunicate someone, or can a bishop? A Pope can only be removed from office by death or by resignation. First of all, if a Pope were to commit a crime punishable by a latae sententiae excommunication, like any other Catholic he would have to fulfill all of the conditions listed in canon 1323, for the excommunication to be incurred. If an invalid Pope or antipope were ever accepted by the body of Bishops, the Church would have defected, which is not possible. Those teachings bind the Pope, but these are not per se of the law. A ferendae sententiae excommunication is not incurred ipso facto, by virtue of the law itself; rather, it is imposed by church authorities, much like a judge in a civil court imposing a sentence on someone convicted of a crime (cf. 3) Since the former pope has fallen from the Pontificate, the Church can inflict human punishment, which is public excommunication along with a declaration that the See is vacant. Gorgias January 27, 2017, 2:27pm #2. What Exactly Is Excommunication? So every Pope accepted by the body of Bishops must be the valid Pope. Never under any circumstances. Perhaps the most gripping story of excommunication is that of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, who was excommunicated three times by Pope Gregory VII. Then subsequently he broke that law, by his own action. Sanctions, Part III. Re-post: Can We Receive Holy Communion Twice on Christmas Day? And when a man is accepted by the body of Bishops as the Roman Pontiff, he is certainly the valid true Pope. How could a Pope do any of these things within the Church, if he himself had been removed from communion with that Church? This fact cannot be emphasized enough—in part because the world seems to have more than its share of hyper-scrupulous Catholics who fret that they may somehow have been excommunicated accidentally, without realizing exactly what happened or why. By his words or deeds, contrary to those laws, he is thereby dispensed. Re-post: Confession and General Absolution. Please check the Archives first–it’s likely your question was already addressed. None of the content of this website may be reproduced, either in whole or in part, without the advance written permission of the author. Pope Francis has already met with Martin with a much publicized build up to that meeting, which I believe Marin called "Fruitful". Therefore, Pope Francis cannot be excommunicated. Is there a process? Can Pope Francis Be Excommunicated? A good example of this was the Vatican’s 1988 declaration of the excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (addressed in greater detail in “Are They Excommunicated? Unsigned/anonymous questions are not read, much less answered (why is it necessary even to mention this?). Edited for … Refusing First Holy Communion to Children Who Are Ill-Prepared, Ecclesia Supplet: Making Invalid Sacraments Valid, Invalid Baptisms and Unaccountable Clergy. Subscribe to my RSS Feed. After all his attacks, he dared to say, whoever is against the pope is not catholic. 2. He was not guilty of violating the law, and he is above Church law. This is a dogma of the First Vatican Council. Click here for more information. Now try to reconcile this hypothetical chaotic situation within the Church, with Our Lord’s words to Peter in Matthew 16, quoted earlier. Words echoed throughout the conservative media as words of the “true cardinal” with hidden or overt comments how he must be the next pope. Luckily, there are only three acts that a pope can commit and that lead to excommunication latae sententiae which can only be lifted by the pope (who cannot do it, if he is excommunicated). (If you use Google Chrome, first add a Chrome RSS reader or extension.). I don’t believe the current pope has excommunicated anyone. 5. Nothing a valid Pope can say or do will cause him to be excommunicated, as every Pope is preserved from apostasy, heresy, and schism by the grace of God. Each Roman Pontiff has the gift, from the prevenient grace of God, of truth and a never-failing faith. Likewise, if he honestly didn’t know that a certain action technically constituted an excommunicable offense, he would not incur the sanction (c. 1323 n. 2, as already noted above). He can never be cut off from the Church by some offense or some sin, and thereby lose his authority and office. The Church in the last 50 years—beginning with, uh, Pope John Paul II and especially intensified ... Gov. Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated new bishops without the mandate of the Holy Father, in violation of canon 1382, and was well aware that his action was punishable by excommunication latae sententiae—yet he did it anyway. by 1398 and 1329.2; see “Is She Excommunicated? The whole purpose of medicine is to make a sick person get better; and similarly, the whole purpose of medicinal penalties like excommunication is to prompt the return of a Catholic who has done something to cut himself off from the Church. In general, when someone has been excommunicated latae sententiae, it often happens that church authorities will officially make a public declaration to that effect. John relented in 1213 and was restored to communion. But for the sake of argument, let’s say that a Pope commits some crime punishable by latae sententiae excommunication, and he fulfills all the conditions of canon 1323. We only know that He has promised that the forces of evil will not prevail over His Church; how He wishes to go about protecting the Church is of course entirely up to Him. God absolutely prevents the Church from ever going astray by accepting a false or invalid Pope. And so we can only leave this theoretical problem in His Hands. Some of these acts could conceivably be performed by a Pope; for instance, it seems a Pope could help procure an abortion. Excommunication is a sanction that deprives a Catholic of all participation in the common blessings of the society of the Church. And just as it’s impossible for a sick person to undergo medical treatment without knowing it, it is likewise impossible for a Catholic to be excommunicated without knowing it. The Church is charitably assuming that the person doesn’t know that what he is doing/saying is punishable by excommunication—and so it wants to explain to him that he is playing with fire, so as to convince him to stop. Thus, there’s already a mechanism in place by which it’s highly unlikely that excommunication can be abused. Thus excommunication is meant to be helpful—just like medicine. They may do it anyway, but the number of people that will follow them would be significantly lower if they are excommunicated and stripped from cardinalate. Here’s why: 1. This opens up options for ex-Catholic friends to find ways to help each other get excommunicated. 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