Question on excommunication

[junostarlighter]

Is it possible to be excommunicated from the Church after one has passed away? If so, has it ever happened? What conditions must be met for this to happen if this is true?

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Is it possible to be excommunicated from the Church after one has passed away? If so, has it ever happened? What conditions must be met for this to happen if this is true?

I do believe it has happened as well as some being reconciled to the Church after their deaths.

 

[ALLFORHIM]

Hi,
I thought excommunication is to help that person recognize their sin and repent of it and then they are welcomed back into the church. So how can a dead person go through this process. If they are dead they are no longer sinning and they certainly cant repent. Im completely confused.

 

[prv]

Is it possible to be excommunicated from the Church after one has passed away? If so, has it ever happened? What conditions must be met for this to happen if this is true?

I think it is only possible for the Church on earth to declare that a dead person has incurred automatic excommunication during his or her life, not to actually use the penalty in optional cases after death. A person who is deceased has passed beyond the authority of the Church Militant to loose or bind.

 

[bear06]

No the dead cannot be excommunicated. They can only be declared as having been excommunicated during their life.

newadvent.org/cathen/05678a.htm

As the baptized cease, at death, to belong to the Church Militant, the dead cannot be excommunicated. Of course, strictly speaking, after the demise of a Christian person, it may be officially declared that such person incurred excommunication during his lifetime.