Latae sententiae

Unless the excusing circumstances outlined in canons 1321–1330[5] exist, the Code of Canon Law imposes latae sententiae excommunication on the following:

• an apostate from the faith, a heretic, or a schismatic;[6]
• a person who throws away the consecrated Eucharistic species or takes and retains them for a sacrilegious purpose;[7]
• a person who uses physical force against the Pope;[8]
• a priest who absolves his accomplice in a sin against the commandment against adultery;[9]
• a bishop who ordains someone a bishop without a papal mandate, and the person who receives the ordination from him;[10]
• a confessor who directly violates the sacramental seal of confession;[11]
• a person who procures a completed abortion;[12]
• accomplices without whose assistance a violation of a law prescribing latae sententiae excommunication would not have been committed.[13]

Legislation outside of the Code of Canon Law may also decree latae sententiae excommunication. An example is that governing papal elections, which applies it to persons who violate secrecy, or who interfere with the election by means such as simony or communicating the veto of a civil authority.[14]

The ipso facto excommunication that applied before 1983 to Catholics who became members of Masonic associations was not maintained in the revised Code of Canon Law that came into force in that year. However, the Holy See has declared that membership remains forbidden and that "the faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion".[15]

Instances in which one incurs a latae sententiae interdict include the following:

• using physical force against a bishop;[8]
• attempting to preside at Eucharist, or giving sacramental absolution, when not a priest;[9]
• falsely denouncing a confessor for soliciting a penitent to sin against the commandment against adultery;[16] and
• a perpetually professed religious who attempts marriage.[17]

An example of an interdict that is not latae sententiae but instead ferendae sententiae is that given in canon 1374 of the Code of Canon Law: "One who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; one who promotes or moderates such an association, however, is to be punished with an interdict."[18]

Automatic suspension applies to clerics (those who have been ordained at least to the diaconate) in the following cases:

• a cleric who uses physical violence against a bishop;[19]
• a deacon who attempts to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass; or a priest who, though not empowered to grant sacramental absolution, attempts to do so or hears sacramental confession[20] (the empowerment or faculty in question is granted either by the law itself, for instance to those who hold certain offices, or by certain ecclesiastical superiors of the penitents[21] and penitents in danger of death can be validly absolved even by a priest without the faculty to hear confessions, and even if a priest with the faculty is present);[22]
• a cleric who celebrates a sacrament through simony;[23]
• a cleric who has received ordination illicitly;[24]
• a cleric who falsely denounces before a Church superior a priest as having committed the delict of soliciting, in connection with confession, to a sexual sin.[25]

Ferendae sententiae suspension (along with other punishments) is to be inflicted on any cleric who openly lives in violation of chastity[26] and on any priest who "in the act, on the occasion, or under the pretext of confession" solicits a penitent to a sexual sin.[27]