My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

One of the features of many digital devices like smart phones, smart watches, and AI glasses is that they can be voice activated to receive instructions and answer questions. This is fine in ordinary circumstances but certainly not desired in situations when privacy is expected. This should be kept in mind especially with reference to the sacrament of penance (reconciliation). Priests and penitents may not realize that their smart phone or other digital device may be listening to the sacramental confession and so are advised not to bring such devices with them in the confessional or reconciliation room.

Eavesdropping by artificial intelligence may seem harmless, but it would be a much more nefarious situation if an unscrupulous person were to record the confession for devious purposes. But there may also be situations where the penitent with no malicious intent might want to record the priest’s reflections or advice to listen to later, not knowing that doing so is not allowed.

Catholics should be aware that in 1988, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a Decree regarding the excommunication of those who divulge confessions, which said that “ anyone who by means of any technical device makes a recording of what the priest or the penitent says in a Sacramental Confession (either real or simulated) by oneself or by another person, or who divulges it through the means of social communication, incurs [automatic] excommunication.”

While excommunication may be imposed or declared by ecclesiastical authority following a canonical process, in certain circumstances excommunication is incurred automatically due to the seriousness of the matter. In addition to recording sacramental confession, other examples of automatic excommunication are: apostasy, heresy, and schism (canon 1364); desecration of the Eucharist (canon 1382); physically attacking the pope (canon 1370); consecration of a bishop without a papal mandate (canon 1387); violation of the seal of the confessional (canon 1386); and procuring an abortion (canon 1397 §2). Accomplices who were needed to commit an action that has an automatic excommunication penalty are also automatically excommunicated (canon 1329).

This raises the question: what is excommunication and what are its consequences?

“Excommunication” is one of the most highly charged and feared words connected with the Catholic faith. It is also one of the most misunderstood. Many people incorrectly believe that a person who has been excommunicated has been “kicked out” of the Catholic Church. They may also think that this is a permanent and irreversible punishment. The penalty may be viewed as harsh, lacking in charity, even un-Christian.

Excommunication is a type of sanction or penalty known as a censure, in contrast to expiatory penalties. Expiatory penalties (canon 1336) punish the offender for a prescribed time or an indefinite time and seek to remedy the damage or injustice done to societal values by the offense and to deter others from engaging in similar wrongdoing. In contrast, censures are considered to be “medicinal penalties” (canon 1312, §1, 1º), which means that they seek to persuade the offender to cease the wrongful behavior and reintegrate the person into the life of the ecclesial community. As such, censures are lifted when the offender has “purged the contempt” for the law, i.e., has withdrawn from engaging in the wrongful behavior and has made suitable reparation for damages, if necessary (see canons 1347 and 1358).

Properly understood in this way as a medicinal penalty, excommunication certainly does not expel the person from the Catholic Church, but simply forbids the excommunicated person from engaging in certain activities (listed in canon 1331) in the life of the Church until the offender reforms and ceases from the offense. Once this happens, the person is to be restored to the fullness of participation in the life of the Church. Although the remission of the censure pertains to the competent authority to determine whether the person has actually withdrawn from the wrongful conduct, in a sense the offender holds in his or her own hand the key to the release from the censure. If the wrongful behavior ceases and any necessary reparation or restitution is made, the excommunication will be lifted; if not, it continues.

Thus, some people may be excommunicated for only a short time. For others, the excommunication may never be lifted if they do not repent and change their ways. Church history over the past two millennia provides many examples of both. For example, King Henry VIII was excommunicated for defying the pope and declaring himself to be head of the church of England (today called the Anglican Church, except in the United States, where it is known as the Episcopal Church due to the desire of the American revolutionaries to disassociate themselves from identity with England). Henry VIII never “purged the contempt” and hence died excommunicated. In contrast, the racist segregationist Leander Perez was excommunicated by New Orleans Archbishop Joseph Rummel in 1962, but since Perez repented before his death in 1969, he died as a Catholic in good standing with the Church. This is the outcome that the Church seeks and fervently desires.

Seen in this way, a censure such as excommunication is not at all vindictive, but may be seen as a sort of “tough love,” just as loving parents discipline their children to teach them the difference between right and wrong. In fact, it would be most unloving to allow someone to persist in their wrongdoing without pointing out the fault. Jesus spoke about fraternal correction (Matthew 18:15-17) and St. Paul wrote that “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). My own Episcopal motto reflects this: Lex Cordis Caritas, that is, the Law of the Heart is Love.

Dr. Edward Peters, who teaches canon law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, has written a very informative book (for which I wrote the Foreword), called Excommunication and the Catholic Church (Ascension Press, 2006). Dr. Peters has provided his readers with an excellent description of the Church’s loving remedy known as excommunication, by which all the Christian faithful may be formed into the one holy, Catholic and apostolic Church as the loving Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33). May God give us this grace. Amen.