I just read your reply to Terri regarding excommunication. After reading it, I don’t understand why the bishops do not take action regarding excommunication in the areas where the political leaders say they are Catholic, but try to enact laws and stand by laws that are completely against the Church’s teaching. If the bishops do not start the excommunication process with these people, is that a sin on their part? Will they answer to God for their inaction? Why don’t they excommunicate these types of Catholics?
Have a great day,
Kim
Kim,
I can't speak as to why a specific bishop may not impose excommunication on any given politician but I can speak in generalities as to why it is not done. The argument is made that while some persons are not in the proper state to receive Holy Communion that is for them to discern and for God to judge. While some acts by themselves incur automatic excommunication the act of excommunication is itself a corrective punitive measure designed not so much as to punish but to bring people to repentance. Therefore, it is at the discretion of the bishop on when best to use it. Many bishops don't use it because they fear that it will not have the intended affect. Since there are many Catholics who disagree with many fundamental moral teachings of the Church and who dismiss what the Church teaches in regards to the proper interior disposition for the reception of sacraments it is felt that at best excommunication will make no difference and at worst it will garner support for the person in question by those who oppose the Church and thus have the opposite intended affect. While I see the point in the argument what is often overlooked is the bishops role as the custodian and guardian of the Eucharist and that they have an obligation to act when it concerns public figures and the risk of scandal. While each bishop has to weigh the merits of imposing excommunication, which is more severe than merely informing persons that that are not to present themselves for Holy Communion, in the end you are correct, they will be judged by God for how they acted, as we all will.
Fr. Pisut
