The notion of excommunicate is used in the field of religion to name the action of excluding an individual from the use of the sacraments and the communion of believers . The concept derives from the late Latin word excommunicare .
By excommunicating a person, they are excluded from a community of the faithful, either temporarily or permanently. The characteristics of excommunication can vary: in certain cases, the excommunicated person is expelled from the group and is prevented from participating in the ceremonies.
According to the Catholic catechism, excommunication means applying the most severe ecclesiastical sanction . Whoever is excommunicated cannot perform certain ecclesiastical acts nor receive the sacraments .
Excommunication represents a fracture of the bond that unites the subject to God through the Church. The excommunicated person can no longer participate in communion, although he or she is not necessarily outside the Church.
There are different mechanisms to excommunicate a believer. In some cases, excommunication is carried out through a formal process that creates obligation once the sanction has been imposed. There is also automatic excommunication , which occurs in the event of a very serious offense (such as heresy or apostasy).
A theory or belief that generates controversy, generally in the field of religion, is known as heresy because it confronts dogma, that is, everything that is considered true and undeniable in that context. The etymology of this term takes us to Greek, where it was understood as "a group of believers with a specific opinion about doctrine." In short, heresy is a divergent opinion, which the authorities do not usually tolerate and it is then that the conflict can lead to excommunication.
The term heresy is often confused with apostasy , although the latter is defined as the renunciation, denial or denial of faith , also in the field of religion. It should be noted that it has other meanings, such as the following: the abandonment or departure of an order in an irregular manner; the act of a clergyman to dispense with his status with certain frequency, thereby failing to fulfill his obligations; the abandonment of one doctrine in favor of a new one.
It is important to highlight that an excommunicated religious cannot perform functions or fulfill ecclesiastical offices. Nor can he administer or receive the sacraments.
Absolution from an excommunication can be decided by an authorized priest, a bishop, or the pope . In the face of danger of death, however, all priests are authorized to absolve an excommunication.
Within the scope of Christian churches, excommunicating a believer means preventing him from participating in the Eucharist, that is, the moment of mass in which the priest distributes the sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus through blessed wine and bread. Other names by which the Eucharist is known are the Lord's Supper , Holy Supper , Blessed Sacrament , Breaking of Bread , and Holy Mysteries .
The prohibition of participating in the Eucharist when excommunicating a religious person is a very old measure, since it began in the year 306 with the Council of Elvira , which once again put into effect the pronunciation of certain curses called anathemas for condemn those who respected doctrines that opposed orthodoxy. This council is also called Ilíberis , and it was the first to have been held in Baetica (also called Hispania ), one of the Roman provinces located on the Iberian Peninsula. It is estimated that the city in which it took place, that is, Ilíberis, was located a short distance from present-day Granada or even within it.