Choose a topic from Part 3 Suppl:
1. Excommunication means: (a) separation from the familyof the faithful; (b) loss of the right to share in the prayers andgeneral good works of the Church; (c) loss of the right to receivethe sacraments.
2. The Church imposes this stern penalty ofexcommunication only when the reasons demanding it are most grave.And the Church always hopes that her stern action will humble thepride of the person excommunicated, and so bring him to repentanceand amendment, and thus win him back to his place among herchildren. The Church hopes also, by imposing the censure ofexcommunication, to prevent or lessen the bad effect exercised onothers by the excommunicated person's evil example.
3. The reason for excommunication is always a grave sin,in which the sinner is obstinate. Sometimes even temporal thingscan enter into grave and stubbornly persistent sin; bodilyintegrity, for instance, or liberty, or valuable property. And soit is possible that a person may incur excommunication forinflicting even temporal harm.
4. Excommunication is effective; that is, it produces thesad effects mentioned in the first paragraph above. However, it isnot actually effective if it should be imposed by mistake orerror.
"There is nothing which gives greater security to our actions, or more effectually cuts the snares the devil lays for us, than to follow another person’s will, rather than our own, in doing good."
St Philip Neri
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"Men should often renew their good resolutions, and not lose heart because they are tempted against them."
St Philip Neri
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"Obedience is the true holocaust which we sacrifice to God on the altar of our hearts."
St Philip Neri
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