Is excommunication a practice of modern times?

Answer 1

People can still be excommunicated today. I have known at least one person who was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church because she got a divorce and remarried without permission of the Church.

Roman Catholic AnswerThe following sins bring about an automatic excommunication(just committing the sin makes you excommunicate):

1) An apostate from the faith, a heretic, or a schismatic

2) Profanation of the Eucharist

3) Physical attack against the Roman Pontiff

4) Absolution against an accomplice in a sin against the sixth Commandment

5) Consecration of a bishop without a pontifical mandate

6) A priest who violates the sacramental seal of confession

7) A person who procures a complete abortion

The following are not subject to a penalty when they have violated a law or precept:

1. a person who has not yet completed the sixteenth year of age

2. a person who without negligence was ignorant that he or she violated a law or precept; inadvertence and error are equivalent to ignorance

3. a person who acted due to physical force or a chance occurrence which the person could not foresee or, if foreseen, avoid

4. a person who acted coerced by grave fear, even if only relatively grave, or due to necessity or grave inconvenience unless the act is intrinsically evil or tends to the harm of souls

5. a person who acted with due moderation against an unjust aggressor for the sake of legitimate self defense or defense of another.

6. a person who lacked the use of reason, without prejudice to the prescripts of canon 1324, second 1, n. 2 and canon 1325

7. a person who without negligence thought that one of the circumstances mentioned in nn 4 or 5 was present