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 Editorials | Issues | May 2007 
“So Are They Excommunicated?”
 California Catholic Daily
| | Cardinal Norberto Rivera, Archbishop of Mexico City |
Cardinal Norberto Rivera, Archbishop of Mexico City, clarified in a public statement on May 6 that he has not excommunicated Marcelo Ebrard, the chief of government of the Federal District, for signing a new law legalizing unrestricted abortion, nor the legislators who approved the law. Some politicians interpreted the archbishop’s clarification as a retreat by the cardinal in the face of political pressure – but that interpretation reveals a misunderstanding of Church teaching.
Days before the archbishop’s statement, Ebrard had demanded that the Church send him a written decree of his excommunication to verify that due process was followed by the Church. And several politicians angrily protested that the Church was threatening pro-abortion legislators with excommunication as a way of intervening in the political life of the country.
Evidently there is a grave misunderstanding about this. The Church does not formally decree the excommunication of the person participating or contributing to an abortion, but by doing so the person automatically excludes himself from communion with the Church.
“A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication,” says Canon 1398 of the Code of Canon Law. The phrase latae sententiae, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, refers to an excommunication that happens automatically when the crime is committed - it doesn’t require a public statement or action by Church authorities.
On his way to Brazil for the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean, Pope Benedict himself tried to clarify the issue when questioned by reporters aboard the papal airplane. The Holy Father was asked whether he agreed with the Mexican bishops, who have said publicly and repeatedly that pro-abortion legislators have been excommunicated.
“Canon Law simply establishes that killing an innocent child is incompatible with communion with the Body of Christ,” said the pope. “Thus, they [the Mexican bishops] did nothing new. It's normal; it wasn't arbitrary. It is what is foreseen by the Church's doctrine. They have only publicly declared that which is established in the Church’s law.”
On that same flight to Brazil, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, told the press that Benedict XVI has not excommunicated Mexican politicians who supported the legalization of abortion in the country's capital - rather, they have excluded themselves from Communion.
Fr. Lombardi clarified that neither the pope nor the Mexican bishops had excommunicated the politicians. The press officer explained that the Church teaches that the promotion of abortion is not compatible with the reception of Communion. The journalists then asked the spokesman: "So, are they excommunicated?" "No," Fr. Lombardi responded. "They excluded themselves from Communion." |
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