Q What does it take to get excommunicated?
The
censuring of Fr Tony Flannery by his superiors in the Catholic Church
has been the subject of claim and counterclaim this week.
Just whether or not he has been threatened with excommunication for his “dissident” views remains hotly debated.
As with many matters of canon law, there is scope for different interpretations.
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church describes excommunication as “the most
severe ecclesiastical penalty, which impedes the reception of the
sacraments and the exercise of certain ecclesiastical acts”.
It is
reserved for “certain particularly grave sins”, and cannot be absolved
except by the pope, a bishop or an authorised priest.
Theologians who
spoke to The Irish Times described excommunication as extremely rare and
almost unheard of in an Irish context.
Traditionally, it has been
reserved for clergy who hold “heretical” views or who have been involved
in unauthorised ordinations.
But it has also been used recently to
penalise figures within the church who have supported or advocated
abortion.
One of the few recorded cases in Ireland relates to
Bishop Daniel Cohalan of Cork who excommunicated republicans during the
War of Independence.
Concerned at the spiralling scale of violence in
December 1920, he declared that anyone who organised or took part in “an
ambush or in kidnapping or otherwise shall be guilty of murder, or
attempt at murder, shall incur by the very fact the censure of
excommunication”.
Theoretically, the leaders of Sinn Féin,
including Éamon de Valera, were subject to this order, although it
didn’t impede their activities or, for that matter, subsequent
harmonious relationships with the Catholic Church.
In more recent
years, excommunication was periodically threatened against the IRA, as
well as “rebel” priests including Pat Buckley who “excommunicated
himself”, according to his superiors, in 1998 when he was consecrated as
a bishop outside of the church.
Under canon law, excommunication
is described as a “medicinal penalty” aimed at bringing the offender
back into the fold after repenting.
Normally, excommunication occurs
latae sententiae, or automatically when a law is contravened rather than
following a specific inquiry.
One such automatic basis is
breaking the seal of confession.
This has not been without controversy
as campaigners believe the penalty impeded the prosecution of clerical
sex abusers.
In fact, one of the first people to expose a
paedophile priest, Sr Mary MacKillop, was excommunicated in 1871 for
bringing the abuse to light.
Three years ago, she was canonised as
Australia’s first saint, showing the Catholic Church is nothing if not
an evolving institution.