Canonist Marc Balestrieri reviews important issues that remain in play with respect to the Jesuit priest’s conviction in 2020 of violating the confessional by absolving a person with whom he had ...

Why excommunicate people? Is this not a strange holdover from the medieval Church? Excommunication is a punitive device on the part of the Church and is more than merely denying holy Communion. It ...

Many people believe that excommunication is the Catholic Church's equivalent of capital punishment — the worst punishment that the church can impose on a believer. Some even see it as the earthly ...

Although called different things in different denominations, there is a process of separating congregants from the body of their house of prayer. Most religions also offer offending members a way back ...

The Uruguayan bishops' conference has explained recent statements regarding Catholic lawmakers who voted to legalize abortion in the country, saying they are not excommunicated if they voted in favor ...

(RNS) — I find excommunication to be not only a theologically barbaric practice but also one of dubious utility. It doesn’t come from the example of Jesus. It also doesn’t work. (RNS) — Natasha Helfer ...

When I was auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles some years ago, I spoke up at a meeting of the California hierarchy. We were considering a number of moves being made by the state legislature, including a ...

In response to a ruling by Colombia’s Constitutional Court making the country the first in Latin America to legalize abortion, the country’s bishops said Thursday that civil disobedience may be ...

Bishop Jaime Soto, shown in a 2017 file photo, announced on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020, the automatic excommunication of Father Jeremy Leatherby for substituting the name of Pope Francis during Mass with ...

(RNS) — Many people believe that excommunication is the Catholic Church’s equivalent of capital punishment — the worst punishment that the church can impose on a believer. Some even see it as the ...