How could someone commit simony?

Answer 1

The Catechism addresses simony in paragraphs 2118 and 2121 which address the fact that simony is one of the ways to break the First Commandment.

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In most cases that would ordinarily fall under the sin of simony (see below for an explanation), the Church has forestalled most cases of lay simony. For instance to sell anything, like a rosary, or other object of devotion that one owns that has a blessing, the thing automatically loses its blessing if it is sold. This is why you will see a warning that an object must be blessed again if you buy it. Other ways in which you might transgress this, would be offering something to a priest to convince him to hear your confession or give you Holy Communion. Anytime you reduce something sacred that belongs to God to a financial (or other remunerative) transaction, you have committed the sin of simony. Major cases of simony would incur an automatic excommunication under the old Code, and is mentioned several times in the new Code, for instance:

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Can. 1380 A person who celebrates or receives a sacrament through simony is to be punished with an interdict or suspension.

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from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Simony. A sacrilege that consists in buying and selling what is spiritual in return for what is temporal. In simony the person tries to equate material things, such as money, with spiritual things, such as divine grace, and treats the latter as though he or some other human being had full ownership of what really belongs to God. The term "simony" originated with the biblical account of Simon Magus, who sought to purchase from St. Peter the spiritual power derived from the imposition of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:18). Simony includes both agreements that are illicit by divine law and those which the law of the Church forbids as greater protection and reverence for spiritual goos. Thus to promise prayers only in exchange for a certain sum of money is simony forbidden by divine (natural) law. To confer sacred orders or obtain some position of authority in the Church in return for money or its equivalent is simony forbidden by ecclesiastical law. When simony is against the divine law, it is always a grave sin. Its gravity in other cases depends on the serious nature of what is bought or sold, and on the degree of scandal given. (Etym. Latin simonia, after Simon Magus.)

Answer 2

Simony is a form of ecclesiastic corruption, involving the sale of Church privileges, so you would need to be in a position to do this. In spite of occasional attempts to stamp it out, simony was endemic in the Catholic Church for much of the period from at least the sixth century until the Council of Trent, with various levels from priests to popes selling privileges. A member of the laity is unlikely to be able to commit simony.

Examples of simony include sale of indulgences, sale of votes at a conclave to elect the next pope and, on at least one occasion, the sale of the office of pope itself.