Excommunication is the OBLIGATION of the Bishops

Can we judge others? The understanding of the faithful as to if, when, and how to judge others is possibly the most misunderstood aspect of the faith. Perhaps the most famous line of the Gospel:

            Judge not, that you be not judged. Matthew 7:1

Who hasn’t been in a conversation or on debating on Facebook and tried to make what they thought was a benign comment about someone’s behavior and then been met with this objection? However, a well catechized Catholic can and should respond with, “Yes, but our Lord Jesus also said”:

            Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. John 7:24

BOTH verses actually make the same point: that whether you can judge something comes first from your internal disposition. Jesus warns, “Judge not …” because if your internal disposition is sinful, your judgment will be harsh and unforgiving, and then you will be judged in the same manner. Similarly, in the second verse, the context is Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath. Jesus is warning us to not presumptively judge something harshly even if it looks sinful but instead, to withhold judgment until with your properly formed conscience you can understand the situation more subtly – in this case, that healing another person, even on the Sabbath, is a good thing.

Once we understand that judging another person is potentially a perilous endeavor, does it follow that when we become aware of the blatantly sinful actions of another person we are never to judge and are just supposed to look the other way?  No, in fact, the scripture says:

If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Ezekiel 3:18

So here we see a very different standard. In this verse, we are being warned that if we know someone is sinning and we say nothing to warn them about the effect of their sin, then we are also responsible for the effects of his sin. This idea is carried forward into the New Testament:

As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. 1 Timothy 5:20

Rebuking in the presence of all sounds a little judgy but we are commanded to do it! Notice two things. First, this rebuke is for a person who “persists in sin”. That implies just that they are committing the sin repeatedly but also that the conduct is well known to others. Second, the purpose of the rebuke is to be a warning to others. This is obviously meant to help the people who hear the rebuke be motivated to stay within the confines of good moral behavior.

This brings us to the biblical basis for excommunication.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. ... 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 ESV

Notice, the sin of the man sleeping with his stepmother is widely known and obviously persistent. Therein lies the key, the sin is grave, PUBLIC, and repeated. What is the remedy? This person is to, “be removed from among you”. That, my friends, is excommunication. The purpose of which is to strike fear in the heart of the sinner so that they snap out of the stupor into which sin places you. This is in hope that he will repent and ultimately be saved.

A Catholic politician that is promoting, funding, and legislating in favor of abortion that then goes to Holy Communion is committing multiple sins that are grave, public, and repeated. The bishops repeated justification for not excommunicating high-profile pro-abortion politicians is that it is a remedy of “last resort” and it is not “pastoral”. Respectfully, that ship has sailed. Catholic politicians who support abortion have been in office for decades. Nancy Pelosi has been in Congress since 1987. The current, most notorious offender, President Joe Biden, was first elected to Congress in 1973. Have the Bishops not been pastoral for forty years? We are well past pastoral and well into last resort.

Furthermore, none of these politicians’ public sins are limited just to the support of abortion.  All of them support other public policies that violate Catholic teaching. How much grave, public, and repeated sin is enough to warrant the use of the remedy mandated by scripture? The failure of the bishops to act jeopardizes the salvation of the sinner and the souls of all the faithful who seethe sinner go unrebuked.

Finally, the failure of the Bishops to use the medicine of excommunication is itself a grave sin. 

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. James 4:17

Obviously, the salvation of souls is good and it is something the Bishops ought to do because it is commanded by scripture.  Yet, to the best of my knowledge, not one Bishop has taken this important step.  It is therefore a. “sin for them”.