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Prescinding for a moment from who said it (and allowing for the usual vexatious translation issues) a recent interview with a conscientious priest on the subject of abortion, excommunication, and denial of the Eucharist, illustrates well how widespread is the confusion in this area. In my opinion, these fundamental points must be sorted out, once and for all, so that those who must apply the norms to real cases can do so responsibly. I make some suggestions toward that goal here (the analysis chart is easier to read on my website). And be sure to see Phil Lawler's broader...

A primer for those who prefer knowing to opining In the vortex swirling around the pope's comments on the canonical consequences for supporting pro-abortion legislation (including what the pope said, or meant to say, or should have said), it might be good to set out calmly and simply some canons that directly impact on this situation. Strictly speaking, there are only two, but in light of comments I've heard or read, we apparently need to explicitate a third canon even though it only repeats sound personal moral theology and does not direct ecclesiastical responses to this kind of behavior....

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Pope Benedict XVI kicked off a historic five-day visit to Brazil on Wednesday by sending a tough anti-abortion message that sparked a hemisphere-wide debate over the Roman Catholic Church's efforts to influence politicians. In answer to a question about Mexico City's recent legalization of abortion, Benedict indicated that he would support Mexican bishops if they were to decide to excommunicate lawmakers who voted for the law. "It is part of the code," Benedict said, according to reporters aboard the plane. "It is based simply on the principle that the killing of an innocent human child is...

Pope Benedict on Wednesday warned Catholic politicians they risked excommunication from the Church and should not receive communion if they support abortion. It was the first time that the Pope, speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him on a trip to Brazil, dealt in depth with a controversial topic that has come up in many countries, including the United States, Mexico, and Italy. The Pope was asked whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who last month voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City. "Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed...

Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani has made several statements supporting legalized and even taxpayer-funded abortion. Some Catholics believe these warrant a "latae sententiae" excommunication from the church under canon law - in other words, an automatic excommunication that occurs "by the very commission of the offense." But there is another area on which the grounds for excommunication are much more clear: marriage. Giuliani is currently in a civil marriage with Judith Nathan. Unlike Giuliani's previous two marriages, this one was not performed under the auspices of the Catholic Church. And unlike his second marriage, he did not receive an annulment...

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI yesterday set out "nonnegotiable values" as he urged Catholic lawmakers to oppose laws favoring divorce, abortion, homosexual "marriage" and euthanasia. In a long-awaited text, the pope exhorted "Catholic politicians and legislators ... to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature." "These values are not negotiable," he wrote, listing "respect for human life, its defense from conception to natural death [and] the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman." Benedict's first such apostolic exhortation dashed any hope for a relaxation of the requirement of celibacy for Roman Catholic...

LINCOLN, February 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) ­ The Vatican’s second highest juridical authority has rejected the appeal of an American leftist group, Call to Action (CTA), to overturn a decree of excommunication by the bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, who called the group and “anti-Catholic sect”. A letter from the Apostolic Signatura, the Catholic Church’s supreme tribunal and the highest judicial authority after the Pope himself, dismissed the group’s attempt at appeal with a terse message that it had “no competence” to overturn the decree. The Signatura’s letter reiterates a December letter from the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, Giovanni Cardinal Battista Re,...

VIENNA, Austria, February 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Salzburg Auxiliary Bishop Andreas Laun has caused a stir in the German press by saying publicly that a Catholic businessman who rented space in his shopping mall to an abortion clinic has excommunicated himself.  The businessman, Richard Lugner, at first threatened to sue Bishop Laun but has since thought better of the lawsuit but has not reconsidered his aiding and abetting the killing of unborn children. In an interview with the Catholic News Agency Austria (http://www.kath.net ), Bishop Laun was asked if Lugner's action constituted an automatic excommunication (latae sententiae).  Bishop Laun replied,...

Dec. 7, 2006 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has confirmed an American bishop's decision to excommunicate members of the dissident group Call to Action. Call to Action is "causing damage to the Church of Christ," wrote Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re (bio - news), the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, in a letter to Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska. In March 1996, Bishop Bruskewitz had announced the excommunication of all Catholics in his diocese who were members of Call to Action or several other dissident groups which he described as "totally incompatible with the Catholic faith." The Nebraska chapter of...

(English-language translation) Gonzalo De Villa, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Guatemala [City], assured yesterday that the Catholic Church's decision to excommunicate Father Eduardo Aguirre Oestmann reflects that "he chose to distance himself from the communion and norms of his priesthood." In 2003, Aguirre founded the Saint Mary of the New Exodus Ecumenical Communion congregation, whose goal is to gather together Catholic and non-Catholic Christians as well as non-Christians. In response, Rodolfo Cardinal Quezada Toruño signed the decree that separates him from the Catholic communion. The decision was approved by the Vatican. "[Aguirre] systematically ignored the Church's norms, he refused...

     Excommunication (1983 CIC 1331) is the most severe censure that the Catholic Church can impose on a member of the faithful. This controversial penalty is, however, fundamentally oriented to fostering the reform of the individual (1983 CIC 1312 § 1, n. 2). I have been saying for some time that excommunication, although neglected in the decades after Vatican II, will be used more frequently in the future. Evidence in support of this prediction is, I suggest, accumulating. This page will monitor instances of excommunication under the 1983 Code of Canon Law. I would, of course, appreciate information that would...

WASHINGTON, September 27 (UPI) — A Roman Catholic archbishop, whom the Vatican says has been excommunicated, Wednesday rejected the Holy See's disciplinary action.      "We do not accept this excommunication and lovingly return it to His Holiness, our beloved Pope Benedict XVI, to reconsider it and withdraw it and join us in recalling married priests to service once again," said Emmanuel Milingo, the Catholic Church's former leader of its Zambian parishes.      Earlier this week, the Vatican said Milingo had excommunicated himself by an illicit consecration of four married men as bishops and also by his public promotion of a...

Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, the Zambian prelate who angered the Vatican by getting married in 2001, has been excommunicated for again defying the Holy See by installing four married men as bishops, the Vatican said Tuesday. The Vatican said Milingo, 76, was "automatically excommunicated" under church law for the ordination of the men at a church in Washington on Sunday. The Archdiocese of Washington said Sunday that the installations were not valid. Milingo is in a condition of "progressive, open break with communion with the Church," the Vatican said in a statement. The four men, who claim affiliation with the breakaway...

While many questions remain, the Vatican has released a statement today formally excommunicating Abp. Milingo. Here is the press release in Italian. Amy has an unofficial English translation. Ed Peters posts some initial thoughts on the statement. Jimmy Akin suggests that consecrating bishops without a Papal mandate should itself be an act of schism, and hints at a very disturbing possibility: "As tragic as [this] situation is, I fear that an even greater tragedy may be about to unfold. Since the debacle following Vatican II, the Holy See has been terrified of a major schism occurring that would involve...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (National Catholic Register) – If you get “married” in front of a priest you found on rentapriest.com, you’re likely not getting your money’s worth. So said a canon lawyer in the wake of a priest’s excommunication this summer. Such a marriage would not be a marriage at all, Father Jason Gray explained. St. Augustine Bishop Victor Galeone excommunicated a member of Rent A Priest, an organization of married priests who offer to administer sacraments for donations or fees. There are some 300 members listed on the Rent A Priest Web site. The organization’s founder said there are about...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A news report that a cardinal threatened doctors who performed an abortion with excommunication sparked controversy Wednesday and a denial from the prelate. Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo denied saying that the Vatican will excommunicate the doctors who performed Colombia's first legal abortion on an 11-year old girl allegedly raped by her stepfather. "I have not said that, nor has the Holy See, nor have I thought it," Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, said in an interview with Caracol Radio. The report Tuesday touched off a storm of controversy, making the front...

An ultra-radical Islamic ideology mixing zealot-like devotion and holy war creed is drawing more scrutiny in anti-terrorist probes from the Middle East to Europe — with increasing indications that its base on the fringes of Islamic extremism could be widening. In existence since the 1960s, al-Takfir wa al-Hijra has offered intellectual inspiration to al-Qaida and other militant groups. But authorities now worry about followers becoming more aggressive with recruitment and retaliation against perceived foes of Islam, such as Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Officials in the Netherlands say the Dutch-Moroccan suspect — accused of killing Van Gogh on a busy...

News Release August 14, 2006 STATEMENT FROM CARDINAL JUSTIN RIGALI REGARDING EILEEN DIFRANCO Recently, there has been extensive media attention regarding an attempted ordination of women, which took place on a river boat outside Pittsburgh on July 31, 2006. Eileen DiFranco, who is known to members of Saint Vincent DePaul Parish in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, participated in the event. Accordingly, the following statement is issued regarding this activity. Recently, there has been a good deal of publicity about a woman of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Mrs. Eileen DiFranco, participating in a simulated ceremony of ordination to the priesthood...

SAN DIEGO - A woman who says she has been ordained a Roman Catholic priest led a service during the weekend - despite the risk of being excommunicated. Jane Via, 58, is among 15 American women who have recently gone through ordination ceremonies that are not sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, which bars women from becoming priests or deacons.A hundred congregants attended her service on Sunday at the Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community in San Diego.It was her first appearance since meeting with San Diego Bishop Robert Brom to discuss the consequences of her claimed ordination, which could ultimately...

Dr. Ed Peters latest:The pseudo-ordinations that a number of women around the world, and lately in the United States, have attempted are, to borrow Leo XIII's phrase, "absolutely null and utterly void". (See specifically John Paul II, Ordinatio sacerdotalis, n. 4). Last summer (scroll to 6 July 2005) I explained how such affronts to divine and canon law can and will result in excommunication, although, as I argued, not by the automatic process (1983 CIC 1314) that many simply assumed would apply to such cases. Here I need to make a different point.To no one's great surprise, some of these...