The latter.
He was warned repeatedly to cease and desist and he refused. Hence the excommunication.
Excommunication is reserved for perseverance in serious sin, in the face of requests to abandon it. On the other hand, sins committed in the past, however serious, and which are no longer occurring and for which a person has expressed remorse, do not necessitate an excommunication.
The point being that excommunication is intended to bring a perp to repentance, rather than to nail him or her for previous errant behavior.
The point being that excommunication is intended to bring a perp to repentance, rather than to nail him or her for previous errant behavior.
Bears repeating.
There is also the punishment of "defrocking," which would be more appropriate for a priest convicted of sexual molestation of a minor. The priest would be laicized and prevented from acting publicly as a priest.
It sounds as if this priest was already laicized, but I don't know.