Can You Excommunicate Yourself?

My first instinct to answer this question was: No. Excommunication, to me, seemed to be a power trip by a Pope or other Church authority figure. In fact, in the 16th century, so many people were excommunicated that there had to be new rules.

While seemingly commonsensical, they were apparently not, and as stated in the Council of Trent (15435-63) the rules are as follows*:

• [excommunication] is to be used with sobriety and great circumspection (seeing that experience teaches that if it be wielded rashly or for slight causes, it is more despised than feared, and works more evil than good)
  
• it is to be used for the purpose of provoking a revelation on account of things lost or stolen
• it shall be issued by no one whomsoever but the bishop
• not then, on account of some uncommon circumstance which moves the bishop thereunto
• and after the matter has been diligently and very maturely weighed

Good to know bishops shouldn't just go around excommunicating people for the hell of it. The few excommunications there are now are for public figures, usually who oppose papal teaching or Council decisions. (Though I am thinking of the nun in Phoenix who approved an abortion at a Catholic hospital to save the mother of the child. If you don't know the story, you can read an article here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126985072 . A famous female theologian from BC is quoted, and although I look up to her, she unfortunately once told me she didn't think I could handle her class; le sigh). The point of excommunication, or "exclusion from communion" is to forbid someone who has done something grievous to partake in Catholics' highest sacrament. The action is meant to make people repent, and since baptism cannot be undone, no one can be excommunicated forever and can be welcomed back.

While bishops, popes, and cardinals have the power to excommunicate, they are not the only ones. My initial answer to this question was wrong: the Code of Cannon Law** allows for latae sententiae, or automatic excommunication. A person can excommunicate herself when engaging in the following:

• apostasy (formally renouncing your religion)
  
• heresy (rejecting religious beliefs or dogma) [Or in Medieval Times, being confused, illiterate, and unable to distinguish your Catholic from your traditional pagan beliefs... if this was your case, you would probably be burned thanks to the Inquisition]
  
• schism (separation from the Church body) [though if you're schisming, I doubt excommunication would matter. With the Avignon popes, which I will get to at a later date, I wonder if they all excommunicated each other?]
  
• desecration of the Eucharist [how often did this happen?]
  
• physical violence against the Pope [why only against him?]
• ordination of the bishop without papal approval [this is more for when monarchs and not the pope named bishops, but if I were to be excommunicated for anything, I would want it to be for this]
• procurement of a completed abortion [what's an incomplete abortion? If you try and fail, does it still count?]

But don't worry, there's good news: an individual who excommunicates himself can seek repentance and rejoin the Church.

The last instance of automatic excommunication is interesting: can a man procure a complete abortion? In the case from Phoenix stated above, if the mother is Catholic, is she too excommunicated? And why out of all things, is procuring an abortion excommunication-worthy? Why not completely killing anyone? Or sexually abusing someone? Or physical violence against a regular priest, not just the Pope? Or physical violence against women? Etc. Etc. Do I agree that killing an innocent life is bad? Of course. From the Catholic perspective, however, everyone is born with Original Sin (hence, baptism). So why is killing someone with that Sin worse than killing one who's been baptized without it? Or does a person have to be born in order to have the stain of Sin, but in the womb is without and completely innocent?

I just... don't get it.There seems to be something missing, like logic, or, perhaps, the voice of women in the Church Hierarchy.

~

*Stanford, Peter. "Teach Yourself Catholicism." U.S.: The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2008.

** http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P50.HTM ; http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_INDEX.HTM