Excommunication

• 1. Defining Religious Censure

  ›

  A 16th-century fresco by Giorgio Vasari in the Sala Regia depicts Pope Gregory IX excommunicating Emperor Frederick II. The artist, given few details, chose to show the pope personally stepping on the emperor rather than following traditional procedure where priests would hurl burning candles and stamp them out. This visual representation captures the gravity of an institutional act used to deprive or limit membership within a religious community. Excommunication functions as a tool to restrict rights such as receiving sacraments or maintaining communion with other members. It serves to exclude those whose behaviors or teachings contradict the core beliefs of a Christian community. The practice aims to protect existing members from abuses while offering the offender a path to recognize their error and repent. In some denominations, this spiritual condemnation includes banishment, shunning, and public shaming depending on the specific group norms.

• 2. Catholic Church Procedures

  ›

  Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Exsurge Domine on the 16th of May 1520, condemning Martin Luther's propositions regarding church authority. This document declared that excommunications are not merely external punishments but spiritual penalties binding in heaven. The Catholic Church distinguishes between automatic excommunication incurred at the moment of committing an offense and declared excommunication imposed by a legitimate superior. Canon law lists activities prohibited for the excommunicated person under Canon 1331 §1. These restrictions include ministerial participation in celebrating the Eucharist and exercising any ecclesiastical offices. Despite these limitations, the excommunicated individual remains bound by obligations like attending Mass even though they cannot receive Communion publicly if the sin is manifestly grave. Resolution typically requires a declaration of repentance and absolution granted by a priest or bishop empowered to lift the censure. Pope Pius VI later condemned notions suggesting excommunication only excludes one from exterior communion in August 1794.

• 3. Protestant Denominational Practices

  ›

  The Smalcald Articles written by Martin Luther differentiate between great and small forms of excommunication within Lutheran churches. Small excommunication bars an individual from the Lord's Supper while great excommunication excludes them from both the church and political communities outside its authority. Modern practices vary significantly with some congregations requiring unanimous votes to expel laymen during Sunday services. In Sweden and Denmark, individuals turned out of their parish sit in places appointed by priests at a distance from others yet remain free to attend other acts of devotion. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America faced unusual situations when members attempted to lobby fellow congregants to vote for the excommunication of serial killer Dennis Rader. John Calvin argued in his Institutes that church censures do not consign people to perpetual ruin but aim to induce repentance and restoration. Jonathan Edwards wrote in his treatise on the nature of excommunication that believers are forbidden from eating with excommunicated persons as a form of keeping company.

• 4. Mormon Disciplinary Councils

  ›

  Joseph Smith dictated a revelation on the 9th of February 1831 which later became Doctrine and Covenants section 42 establishing the origins of LDS disciplinary procedures. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ceased using the term excommunication in 2020 replacing it with withdrawal of membership. Formal membership councils formerly called disciplinary councils now emphasize the availability of repentance rather than focusing on guilt. Stake presidencies and high councils decide whether to withdraw the membership of Melchizedek priesthood holders while bishops determine sanctions for other members. Data shows per-capita excommunication rates varied dramatically from about one in 6,400 members in the early 1900s to one in 640 by the 1970s. Brian Evenson a former BYU professor faced criticism from church leadership over his fiction writing after meeting with administrators including Bruce Hafen. The September Six group included five intellectuals and professors who were excommunicated and one who was disfellowshipped though local leaders remain responsible for these decisions without influence from headquarters.

• 5. Jehovah's Witnesses Disfellowshipping

  ›

  A judicial committee of at least three elders investigates cases where a member is accused of unrepentantly committing serious sins within Jehovah's Witness congregations. Disfellowshipping severs friendly relationships between all Witnesses and the disfellowshipped person restricting interaction even with extended family to minimum levels like reading wills or providing essential care for the elderly. Watch Tower Society literature describes apostates as mentally diseased leading to investigations in the UK regarding religious hatred laws. Sociologist Andrew Holden notes that many Witnesses remain affiliated out of fear of being shunned and losing contact with friends and family members. Reinstatement requires applying in writing to elders who determine if sufficient time has passed for genuine repentance to be proven. Elders meet with the individual to establish their repentance before allowing them to participate in formal ministry activities such as house-to-house preaching. Serious sins involving child sex abuse permanently disqualify the sinner from any special privilege of service regardless of secular conviction status.

• 6. Non-Christian Religious Exclusions

  ›

  The Theravadan monastic community expels monks from monasteries for heresy or breaking vows known as the four defeats which include abstaining from sexual intercourse stealing murder and lying about spiritual gains. The lay Japanese Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai was expelled from the Nichiren Shoshu sect in 1991 following internal conflicts. In South Asia Hindu caste councils historically practiced excommunication resulting in abasement of caste status or throwing individuals into the sphere of untouchables. The Gupti Ismailis from the Hindu Kachhiya caste were excommunicated completely in the early 1930s after conflict over allegiance to the Ismaili Imam. Patit is a Sikh term referring to an apostate who violates religious rules listed by Guru Gobind Singh in his 52 hukams including dishonoring hair eating meat slaughtered the Kutha way and using intoxicants. Herem represents the highest ecclesiastical censure in Judaism though it stopped existing after The Enlightenment when local communities lost political autonomy.