Can excommunication be abused?

[someone429]

Can a Pope or a bishop or a priest excommunicate a Catholic as long as he wants? If he can, how can abuse of excommunication be avoided?

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

Excommunication isn’t something done on a whim; there are codified reasons for this penalty to be applied. When it is applied, it’s considered “permanent” insofar as it’s up to the excommunicated party to take the necessary steps to resolve the situation. Thus, there’s already a mechanism in place by which it’s highly unlikely that excommunication can be abused.

Edited for clarification: it’s never intended to be permanent. It’s meant to be a healing process; a prescription for the ill, if you will.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Real excommunication is up to the excommunicated person. The moment they decide to repent, the Bishop will either hear their confession or give a local priest the facilities to hear their confession and lift the excommunication. It is not like a prison sentence that is set for X number of days.

 

[1ke]

The offenses for which excommunication is a possible penalty/sentence, and the remedies for excommunication are all found in canon law.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It seems like it happens pretty rarely, so unless you have some specific instance where you cite abuse, it’s hard to answer your question. We’re not seeing bunches of excommunicated people all protesting and claiming they have been unfairly kicked out by Bishop X.

 

[joeybaggz]

Yes, it can be abused. Sorry to differ from others. Assuming a bishop has the power to excommunicate (and I’m sure he does) anyone who disagrees with his policies or teachings can be considered a “heretic” by that bishop and summarily excommunicated.
Granted, it would be an extraordinary situation, but as the old saying goes, “absolute power corrupts, absolutely.”

 

[Mary888]

I am sure that even if why our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Angels who partake in liturgy and for the miraculous part of the Church give the clerics a lot of freedom to make mistakes they do silently guard what happens when the bishops exercise their power of excommunication.
Saint John Chrysostom I believe was excommunicated abusively was he not? But he retreated as a hermit and prayed and when he came back to fight the bishops they were ashamed and saw their err.
Not everyone who is abusively excommunicated is St. John Chrysostom though even if I am sure they are very angry and sad and they wish they were put on the same level by God and miraculously helped. I understand that all excommunication can be withdrawn by the bishop if the person in cause show remorse for their actions and declares repents in public in certain cases (like in cases of heresy). Is this correct? - question addressed to those who know the canon law.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Except the Bishops are bound by Canon Law.

 

[joeybaggz]

Except the Bishops are bound by Canon Law.

True, but then again, don’t a lot of people make a living “interpreting” the law, (and using it for their own devices?)

 

[joeybaggz]

Point of clarification. I am answering only the first question asked in the OP.

 

[phil19034]

TheLittleLady:

Except the Bishops are bound by Canon Law.

True, but then again, don’t a lot of people make a living “interpreting” the law, (and using it for their own devices?)

Yes, but they also have peer pressure from their peers in their national bishops’ conference.

 

[joeybaggz]

joeybaggz:

TheLittleLady:

Except the Bishops are bound by Canon Law.

True, but then again, don’t a lot of people make a living “interpreting” the law, (and using it for their own devices?)

Yes, but they also have peer pressure from their peers in their national bishops’ conference.

And, I would think, the universal conference of bishops. My only point is that it is possible, and with a personality that is narcisstic and highly sensitive to criticism, it is possible that a personality of such a nature would use excommunication as a weapon. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen in the modern world.
But it could.

 

[1ke]

Yes, it can be abused. Sorry to differ from others. Assuming a bishop has the power to excommunicate (and I’m sure he does) anyone who disagrees with his policies or teachings can be considered a “heretic” by that bishop and summarily excommunicated.

Granted, it would be an extraordinary situation, but as the old saying goes, “absolute power corrupts, absolutely.”

That is what the appeals process is for. Canon law includes a process to appeal a sentence of excommunication, or other censure.