how are people excommunicated (the process)?

by who?

what title must you hold to excommunicate (or "help" excommunicate) someone?

does excommunication prevent you from entering heaven?

is it still practiced?

what denominations/religions practice it?

thanks.

smells like homework.

I think someone needs to go here.

http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com/

actually it's not school related, it's out of curiosity. i'm just wondering how humans can have the power to bar someones path to heaven (or if this is even correct).

Can't you read?

http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com/

excommunication and tithing.

Smells like a mormon investigator to me.

Three hours is up -- can we castrate him?

You guys are fucking lazy. Unless you're going to tell the guy what he's asking then shut the fuck up. The answer is not nearly as obvious as you are making it out to seem.

I for one happen to know a great deal about church politics and would not mind spending the entire minute it takes me to type this out in order to inform you. The rest of you can go fuck off and die.

In the lutheran church the Bishop and National Bishops have the authority to excommunicate. The usual process goes as follows: either the pastor or congregation will submit to the Bishop that there is a problem. The bishop then will visit the church, evaluate the situation and make a judgement. If it is seen necessary, he/she (depending on the country/state) has the authority to excommunicate. In ohio (where I live) nobody has been excommunicated from the lutheran church in more than 20 years, so no standard has really been set (as far as who gets to make the final call, the bishop, national bishop, or a panel of people). Usually the member leaves on their own before excommunication is necessary. Lutherans do not excommunicate unless the member is somehow intentionally getting in the way of worship or the ultimate goal of the church, but usually those kinds of people find better things to do with their time.

Unfortunatly I only know about lutheranism, since that's how I was brought up. I believe catholics can excommunicate for things such as abortions (outside of rape), large scale blasphemy, dressing up like a really creepy version of the pope (like marilyn manson did in one of his videos), or any of those wonderful things.

I've not attended church for some time, but that's what I remember from my time spent with church officials. I suggest using wikipedia.org, that should have quite a few answers.

To clear up my anger, I'm not just mad at the people in this post, this is something I see all over totse (especially in the tech sections). But here are the main reasons why "google it" is retarded:



1) If the answer is so easy to find, why don't you point him to a few links yourself? Because you're lazy. If the question has already been asked and answered on totse, yeah, he should have looked.

2) People ask questions on totse to get answers from PEOPLE, not text books. When you ask people on totse, not only do you get the answer to your question but you also get feedback from those users. You get opinions; opinions which could shape and influence your own.

3) I just googled "excommunication" and came up with 244,000 results, most with 10+ page explanations. When you ask people on totse, they will give you the EXACT answer that you're looking for, not the exact answer plus 30 extra pages of shit to sift through. It could take him well over an hour of work to find his answer whereas I helped him find an answer in only three minutes of my own time.

And handicapParking: Yes, you should have tried looking on google first (if you didn't).

Don't be so eager to play the "google it" card. Take a chance an answer somebody's question for a change.

Zok i love you.

Zok, the authority the people can like.

My little brother suggests that people convert to Catholocism just to get excommunicated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excommunication

I assume you wanted the catholic meaning.

quote:

Roman Catholic Church

Excommunication is the most serious ecclesiastical penalty for Roman Catholics. While a person excommunicated is not "damned" by the Church, the person is barred from participating in its communal life. The ******d sign of this loss of community involves barring the person from participating in liturgy, i.e., receiving the Eucharist or the other Sacraments. Certain other rights and privileges normally resulting from membership in the church are revoked, such as holding ecclesiastical office. Excommunication is intended to be only temporary, a "medicinal" procedure intended to guide the offender toward repentance. In the Roman Catholic Church excommunication is usually terminated by repentance, confession, and absolution. Excommunications offences must be absolved by a more senior official or a priest that has permission from a senior official.

Automatic excommunication

There are a few offenses for which Catholics are automatically excommunicated:

Apostasy

Heresy

Schism

Desecration of the Eucharist

Physical force against the Pope

One who actually procures an abortion and all accomplices

Priest who absolves a partner in adultery

Priest who directly violates the sacramental seal of confession

Both parties to the consecration of a bishop without a Papal mandate

Also, in the matter of Papal conclaves, all who are present in the conclave, including Cardinals and aides, are bound by oath to keep the details of the conclave secret. Only the Pope can allow details on the election to be released. If anyone present at the conclave reveals secret information without the authorization of the Pope, that person would face automatic excommunication. Simony - or selling of church offices - also would result in automatic excommunication in the case of a Papal election.

Some ecclesiastical offenses incur an automatic interdict, which for a lay person is virtually equivalent to excommunication.

[This message has been edited by Monochrome (edited 02-20-2005).]