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I’ve seen that question a lot lately, as people have wondered on social media why certain Catholic Supreme Court Justices—along with prominent Catholic politicians—haven’t yet been publicly excommunicated, either for their position on abortion or their stance on same-sex marriage.Good question. I have no idea. That’s above my pay grade. Public excommunication, at any rate, seems to be a relatively rare phenomenon.But I was curious about just whom the Church had excommunicated.This, of course, is why God made Wikipedia. The good people at Wikipedia have compiled a list of recent formal excommunications, which might be of interest:21st century  Members of...

You know you are in for a wild ride when a GetReligion reader sends you a URL from The New York Post (or The New York Daily News, for that matter) with one of those, "Yeah, consider the source, BUT" notes that basically is warning you to duck and cover. Incoming. So here is the headline on this one: "The Catholic Church will now forgive your abortion." The loyal reader noted: "The title is bad, but it gets worse from there. Wouldn't have wasted your time with it, but it is such awful dreck that it seemed to me...

SALT LAKE CITY- A Mormon man who gained notoriety over the past decade for running a website that offers doubting Latter-day Saints a forum to chat has been kicked out of the religion. John Dehlin announced the decision from regional church leaders Tuesday. He becomes the second high-profile church member to be excommunicated in the past year in what Mormon scholars consider to be the Utah-based faith's way of keeping dissenters in line. Regional church leaders in North Logan told Dehlin in a letter that they made a unanimous decision to excommunicate him for apostasy. The church defines apostasy as...

SALT LAKE CITY — The founder of the Mormon Stories podcasts announced Tuesday that he has been excommunicated from the LDS Church for apostasy. John Dehlin, who had criticized senior leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and spread what his local church leader called "false concepts" about the faith, made the announcement in a press release Tuesday morning and on the KUER radio program, "RadioWest." North Logan Utah Stake President Bryan King convened a church disciplinary council for Dehlin on Sunday night after eight months of correspondence and meetings with Dehlin. King delivered a letter to...

Q: I am a graduate theology student, and in class we covered the reforms of the Council of Trent. I came across this passage from Chapter 12 of the Decree on Reformation of Session 25: “The holy synod therefore enjoins on all, of what rank and condition soever they be, to whom the payment of tithes belongs, that they henceforth pay in full the tithes, to which they are bound in law, to the cathedral church, or to what other churches… they are lawfully due. And they who either withhold them, or hinder them [from being paid], shall be excommunicated…”...

The University of Notre Dame will provide for contraceptives and abortifacient drugs in its student health-care program, the National Catholic Register reports. Notre Dame had joined other Catholic institutions in filing suit against the contraceptive mandate in the federal health-care program. In that lawsuit, Notre Dame said that the mandate would "require Notre Dame to commit scandal." But after preliminary court rulings against the university-- which Notre Dame is now appealing-- the university administration has chosen to cover contraceptive costs.

In his landmark work Jesus the Christ, James E. Talmage spends several pages outlining the “high priest’s unrighteous adjuration” of the Savior. The Sanhedrin wanted so badly to not only stem the growth of Jesus’ growing disciples, but to take back control of what he continued to point out as a broken religious system of Pharisees, Sadducees, hypocrisy, judgment and adherence to outdated laws that ignored the heart of his message of love, tolerance and spiritual growth. Before I proceed, let me make it clear with those who are looking closely for opportunities to cry foul that I am not...

...The Herald Journal of Logan, Utah is running an online poll asking readers, “Would you support the excommunication of Mormon activists John Dehlin and Kate Kelly?” At the time of this writing, the “No” response outnumbered “Yes” by nearly 4 to 1. Mormon blogger Jana Riess is very troubled by the Church’s actions toward Kelly and Dehlin. She asked, “Are we looking at a Mormon purge?”... “If the point of these pending excommunications is to strike fear in the hearts of other Latter-day Saints who love the Church but do not always agree with it on matters of social justice,...

Speaking to a gathering of tens of thousands of people at the power base of a highly dangerous organized crime group in Italy, Pope Francis Saturday condemned the mafia's "adoration of evil" and declared all mobsters as effectively excommunicated from the Catholic Church. The pope traveled to, and held a mass in, the southern region of Calabria, the power base of the global drug trafficking syndicate 'Ndrangheta, to comfort the family of a 3-year-old boy who, along with his grandfather, was gunned down in a January shootout involving the mafia. "Those who in their lives follow this path of evil,...

Die Welt [Summary: Pope Francis has excommunicated the Austrian president of the Catholic reform movement called We Are Church. A report in Tiroler Tageszeitung has confirmed that Martha Heizer and her husband can no longer participate in the sacraments. Excommunication is the most severe penalty the church can impose. The retired religious educator and her husband in their private home regularly celebrated with other believers but without ordained priests.] THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION IS FROM GERMAN TO ENGLISH USING A TRANSLATION DEVISE, SO IT MIGHT NOT BE TOO GOOD FROM THE NEWS PAPER DIE WELT : Pope Francis, the Austrian...

Cardinal Donald Wuerl has been the most outspoken of those bishops who refuse to obey Canon 915, but all of them [Dolan, O'Malley, Chaput, George...] are on record, as he is, as endorsing the commission of MORTAL SINS by their priests and other ministers of Communion. Cardinal Wuerl has even punished those who have obeyed Canon 915.

Has Nancy Pelosi (finally) been excommunicated for her outrageous support of abortion? Recently a series of stories burbled through the mainstream media suggesting that Nancy Pelosi has been excommunicated or denied Communion by the Vatican. Pelosi is a passionately pro-abortion California politician who describes herself as “a devout Catholic.” She has long been a foe of the pro-life movement. What’s the truth behind the story? Here are 8 things to know and share . . .  1) What’s the origin of this story? The story has its roots in an interview that was given by Cardinal Raymond Burke to the...

Yesterday I wrote (HERE) about the Australian now-former priest, Greg Reynolds, who received a decree of excommunication. The excommunication was issued under the aegis of Pope Francis.This has sent liberals into a tail spin.After all, isn’t Pope Francis supposed to be against rules? Isn’t he the most wonderfulest and bestest and fluffiest Pope ehvur? He’s so chill about, you know, like, stuff like … you know!Today the Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter) is throwing a little nutty about the excommunication of former-Father Reynolds. Let’s call it The Melbourne Ultimatum.Here is a sample of their angst.First, they are all shocked! Fr....

Just days after a controversial interview with Pope Francis was published in the Jesuit magazine America, the pontiff has reportedly excommunicated a priest in Melbourne, Australia because of his support for female priests and gay marriage. According to Barney Zwartz reporting at The Age in Victoria, dissident priest Greg Reynolds has been both defrocked and excommunicated over his support for women priests and same-sex marriage. Zwartz says that Reynolds believes he is the first person ever excommunicated in Melbourne. The order reportedly comes direct from the Vatican and not at the request of Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart. Zwartz wrote that...

(CNSNews.com) – Pope Francis is “starting to sound like a nun,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a Catholic, when asked about some of the Pope’s recent remarks concerning issues such as abortion and homosexuality. In a Sept. 22 interview on CNN’s Situation Room, host Candy Crolwey asked Pelosi, “Before we go, Pope Francis is calling for a new balance between the chruch’s spiritual and political missions. He says the Catholic Church should not interfere spiritually in the lives of gays. He also called for a larger decision-making role for Catholic women. We ask Nancy Pelosi , one of...

LOUISVILLE, KY, Sept. 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a wide-ranging interview, Cardinal Raymond Burke has issued an emphatic call for pro-abortion Catholic politicians like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to be denied Communion. The cardinal also spoke about the rapid advance of the homosexual agenda, the decline in catechesis that, he says, has crippled the Church’s response to pressing moral issues of the day, and the growing danger of Christian persecution under an increasingly “totalitarian” government.

Q: I’m trying to figure out what is really going on in the case of Fr. Bourgeois, who was kicked out of the Maryknolls last year. The stories I read suggested that he was excommunicated and is no longer a priest, right? If that’s true, then why is he now saying publicly that he’s going to appeal to Pope Francis to reinstate him as a Maryknoll priest again? Can the new Pope even do that? —Ryan

In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority.

Rockford, Il – (ProLifeCorner.com – 1-18-2013 – by Rockford Pro-Life Initiative – Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York is again viciously attacking human beings in the womb by pushing on-demand abortion legislation that, if enforced, could even put Catholic hospitals and many state-funded ministries out of business. Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/andrew-cuomos-brave-new-roe#ixzz2ILMJJdnF.The Rockford Pro-Life Initiative is respectfully requesting Cardinal Dolan and the Bishops of New York to make public the excommunication of Gov. Cuomo that he has already incurred privately by his relentless attacks on children in the womb.It is astonishing and a grave scandal that is deeply harming the faith of...

Roy Bourgeois, the former priest who was excommunicated in 2008 and dismissed from the Maryknoll society last year, has been formally notified of his laicization. Bourgeois received a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, relayed through his former Maryknoll superiors, notifying him of his dismissal from the society and from the priesthood. The Vatican asks Bourgeois to sign the letter, acknowledging receipt—which he says he will refuse to do. Bourgeois was excommunicated in 2008 after he participated in a ceremony in which women claimed ordination. He had repeatedly refused to reconsider his stand, and had remained...