Why aren’t they excommunicated? I thought impersonating a priest was an offense in Canon Law that was punishable with excommunication...
See post #5.
I don't know under what canon excommunication might occur automatically, but I did find this:
Canon 1378...
...§2. The following incur a latae sententiae penalty of interdict or, if a cleric, a latae sententiae penalty of suspension:
1/ a person who attempts the liturgical action of the Eucharistic sacrifice though not promoted to the sacerdotal order;
2/ apart from the case mentioned in §1, a person who, though unable to give sacramental absolution validly, attempts to impart it or who hears sacramental confession.
§3. In the cases mentioned in §2, other penalties, not excluding excommunication, can be added according to the gravity of the delict.
Can. 1379 In addition to the cases mentioned in ⇒ can. 1378, a person who simulates the administration of a sacrament is to be punished with a just penalty.
Thus, the reception of the simulated sacrament of ordination is be punished with "a just penalty," but once these pseudo-priests attempt to celebrate Mass or hear confession, they are latae sententiae interdicted. As you know, there isn't a whole lot of difference for a layperson between excommunication and interdiction.
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