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To: Polycarp
>>"Why is a frightened young woman who procures an abortion excommunicated? "

Um... name one.

Last I knew, only one person related to the abortion trade, a clinic owner from Corpus Cristi, has ever been *personally* excommunicated. Personal excommunication (sorry, forget the latin term) is exceptionally rare in the Church.

11 posted on 09/22/2003 11:49:05 AM PDT by dangus
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To: dangus
Dear dangus,

Any woman who procures an abortion to kill her unborn child is excommunicated latae sententiae, that is, automatically.

No bishop or otherwise need announce it, in fact, none need know the abortion was procurred for the excommunication to be incurred.


sitetest
12 posted on 09/22/2003 11:54:13 AM PDT by sitetest (Excommunicating Chappaquidick Ted would be an act of mercy.)
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To: dangus
Um... name one.

Every Catholic one. An excommunication can be latae sententiae; latae sententiae excommunication = automatic sentence of excommunication.

Title VI OFFENSES AGAINST HUMAN LIFE AND FREEDOM Can. 1397 -- One who commits homicide or who fraudulently or forcibly kidnaps, detains, mutilates or seriously wounds a person is to be punished with the deprivations and prohibitions mentioned in can. 1336 in accord with the seriousness of the offense; however, homicide against the persons mentioned in can. 1370 is punished by the penalties specified there. Can. 1398 -- A person who procures a successful abortion incurs an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication. [The Latin original reads: Can. 1398 -- Qui abortum procurat, effectu secuto, in excommunicationem latae sententiae incurrit.] An excommunication is the heaviest spiritual sanction the Church can render. So long as it is in force, it bars the excommunicated person from the church community and from receiving most of the sacraments, as well as from all public associations affiliated with the Church. An automatic (or "latae sententiae") excommunication is an especially severe penalty. The nine or so latae sententiae excommunications in the Code are reserved for use against certain things the Church particularly wants to deter, like assaulting the pope (can.1370) and priests divulging matters heard in the confessional (can.1388). Most excommunications can only follow a tribunal trial (can. 1425, §1, 2°). But latae sententiae penalties operate like a bill of attainder in that there is no "process" for their imposition--the fact that the person voluntarily performed the proscribed act, in the absence of some exception provided in the law, means the penalty is incurred. An excommunication can usually be lifted by the local bishop (the "local ordinary") and sometimes by a priest during confession (can. 1354-1357).

13 posted on 09/22/2003 12:00:47 PM PDT by Polycarp ("The only thing worse than being patronized is being piously patronized." --FReeper Polycarp)
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