Excommunication

Excommunication is a formal religious penalty that removes, suspends, or limits a person’s membership in a faith community, especially their ability to receive sacraments or share in communion with other members. This practice appears in all the ancient churches—including the Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox traditions—as well as in many other Christian denominations. The term is also applied more broadly to similar exclusionary actions, such as shunning, in other religious groups.

The word itself means putting someone out of communion. Depending on the group, excommunication can involve banishment, shunning, or public shaming, and the specific rules vary by community and offense. In some denominations, it carries spiritual condemnation. The penalty is often lifted if the person shows clear repentance.

Among the Amish, excommunication—often called shunning—is used against members who break rules or question the church. Jehovah’s Witnesses refer to their version as disfellowshipping.

In the Bahá’í Faith, excommunication is rare and reserved for the most serious offenses. It is not applied for ordinary rule-breaking, intellectual disagreement, or converting to another religion. Instead, it targets organized dissent that threatens the unity of the community. A person excommunicated in this way is called a covenant-breaker, someone who actively promotes schism or challenges the legitimacy of the religion’s leadership succession. Only the Universal House of Justice has the authority to declare someone a covenant-breaker. Once declared, all Bahá’ís must shun that person, even if they are family members. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá described covenant-breaking as a contagious disease. Bahá’í writings forbid association with covenant-breakers and urge believers to avoid their literature, creating an exception to the Bahá’í principle of independent investigation of truth. Most Bahá’ís are unaware of the small divisions that exist within the faith.

In Christianity, excommunication aims to remove members whose behavior or teachings contradict the community’s beliefs (heresy). It protects the church from harm and encourages the offender to recognize their error and repent.

Within the Catholic Church, the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches have different disciplinary rules regarding excommunication.

In the Latin Church, excommunication can be automatic (latae sententiae), incurred at the moment of committing the offense, or imposed (ferendae sententiae), declared by a legitimate superior or ecclesiastical court. The Council of Trent teaches that excommunicated persons are not members of the Church, having been cut off from her children until they repent. Pope Leo X’s bull *Exsurge Domine* (1520) condemned Martin Luther’s claim that excommunications are merely external punishments. Pope Pius VI’s *Auctorem Fidei* (1794) rejected the idea that excommunication only excludes someone from exterior communion, insisting it is a spiritual penalty binding in heaven. An excommunicated person still bears the indelible mark of Baptism and remains subject to the Church’s jurisdiction. However, they are barred from certain activities listed in Canon 1331 §1: they cannot ministerially participate in the Eucharist or other worship ceremonies, celebrate or receive sacraments, or exercise any ecclesiastical offices, ministries, or functions.

Under current Catholic canon law, excommunicates are still required to attend Mass, even though they cannot receive the Eucharist or take an active liturgical role. They lose rights, such as the right to sacraments, but remain bound by church obligations. Their rights are restored when the penalty is lifted through reconciliation. For automatic excommunications that have not been officially declared, a priest may not publicly refuse Communion to the person, even if the priest knows the excommunication has been incurred—unless the person’s offense is a manifest grave sin, in which case canon 915 obliges the priest to refuse. If the excommunication has been imposed or officially declared, the priest must deny Communion to that person. Excommunication is normally resolved when the person repents, professes the Creed (if heresy was involved), makes an Act of Faith, or renews obedience, as appropriate.