List of people excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church

This list of excommunications is a list of persons excommunicated by the Catholic Church. It includes only excommunications acknowledged or imposed by a decree of the Pope or a bishop in communion with him. Automatic excommunications are not included here if not confirmed by a bishop.

Contents 1 21st century 2 20th century 3 19th century 4 18th century 5 16th century 6 15th century 7 14th century 8 13th century 9 12th century 10 11th century 11 8th Century 12 5th century 13 4th century 14 3rd century 15 2nd century 16 1st century 17 See also 18 Notes

21st century

• Eduardo Aguirre, Guatemalan Catholic priest, now bishop of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church.^[1]
• Members of multiple organizations in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska were excommunicated by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz in March 1996 for promoting positions he deemed "totally incompatible with the Catholic faith".^[2] The organizations include Call to Action, Catholics for a Free Choice, Planned Parenthood, the Hemlock Society, the Freemasons, and the Society of St. Pius X. The Vatican later confirmed the excommunication of Call to Action members in November 2006.^[2]
• Emmanual Milingo, former archbishop of Lusaka, for consecrating four bishops without the papal mandate. Also excommunicated were those receiving consecration.^[3]
• The Community of the Lady of All Nations for heretical teachings and beliefs after a six-year investigation. The declaration was announced by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on September 12, 2007.^[4]
• Rev. Dale Fushek (also laicized by Pope Benedict XVI 02/2010) and Rev. Mark Dippre. Former Priests were issued a Decree of Excommunication by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted for operating "an opposing ecclesial community" in direct disobedience to orders to refrain from public ministry.^[5]
• Father Marek Bozek (since laicized by Pope Benedict XVI), and the lay parish board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis, Missouri in December 2005 were declared guilty of the ecclesiastical crime of schism by then-Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke.^[6] Their excommunication was ratified by the Vatican in May 2008. Four of the parish board members have since reconciled with the Church.
• The Archbishop of Olinda and Recife in Brazil, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, announced the automatic excommunication of the mother and doctors of a nine year old girl who had an abortion after being raped and impregnated by her stepfather.^[7][8]
• Margaret McBride, a nun, for allowing an abortion that doctors deemed medically necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman suffering from pulmonary hypertension.^[9]
• Xavier Eubra de Borja excommunicated by Bishop Honesto Ongtioco of the Diocese of Cubao in the Philippines. De Borja untruthfully claimed to be an ordained priest when he was a layman even offering Mass and hearing confessions. The excommunication was declared June 2, 2010 according to UCA News 18 June 2010.
• Rev Vernon Meyer was excommunicated by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix for participation in the ordination of Elaine Groppenbacher. Meyer was advised of the excommunication on 17 September 2010^[10]
• In 2009 Rev Chris Carpenter was excommunicated by Bishop Olmsted. The excommunication became automatic when Rev Carpenter became affiliated with the Reformed Catholic Church. The bishop's decree of excommunication was the formal declaration of what had already happened by virtue of his schismatic act. Full details are given in 'The Catholic Sun' newspaper May 7, 2009.
• Fr S Joseph Collova was excommunicated by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee in 2007 for joining another denomination and forming a church. He had been barred from functioning as a Roman Catholic priest in 2004 by Dolan while being investigated for child abuse. He is now bishop-elect of the St Edith Stein Catholic Christian Church in Douseman, WI according to BishopAccountability.org.

20th century

• Bishops in China who joined the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and ordained bishops without papal approval.
• John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro in 1962
• Pius XII excommunicated all Catholic supporters of Communism (see Decree against Communism and Fidel Castro)
• Bishop Iuliu Hossu of the eastern-rite Catholic church in Romania excommunicated 37 uniate priests who signed a document with the Romanian communist government that declared the end of the uniate church in Romania and announced its new integration as part of the Romanian Orthodox church. October 1st 1948.
• Éamon de Valera was excommunicated from the church owing to his active support for the republican side during the Civil War in 1922.^[11]
• Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Bishops Antonio de Castro Meyer, Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta for the Ecône Consecrations without papal mandate. Formally declared to have incurred latae sententiae excommunication by Cardinal Bernardin Gantin on July 1, 1988.^[12][13] The excommunications of the latter four were lifted in 2009.
• Father Romolo Murri, and leader of the Italian Catholic Democrats^[14]
• Juan Perón, in 1955, after he signed a decree ordering the expulsion of Argentine bishops Manuel Tato and Ramón Novoa^[15][16]
• Father William Murphy of Seward, Nebraska, in 1901, for defying a ban on collecting money for the Irish Land League^[17]
• All Catholics who participated in the creation of an independent church in the Philippines, in 1902^[18]
• Alfred Loisy, a French cleric associated with modernism.
• Leonard Feeney, a U.S. Jesuit priest who defended the strict interpretation of the Roman Catholic doctrine "outside the Church there is no salvation", arguing that baptism of blood and baptism of desire are unavailing. Feeney was later fully reconciled to the Church before his death.
• Feliksa Kozłowska and the Mariavite movement in December 1906 by St Pius X

19th century

• Napoleon I of France, excommunicated June 10, 1809 for ordering the annexation of Rome and a long period of anti-Papal orders.^[19]
• Stephen Kaminski, PNCC bishop, in 1898^[20]
• Francis Hodur member of PNCC^[21]
• Catholics who denied Papal infallibility were excommunicated (see Old Catholic Church)
• Saint Mary MacKillop by Bishop Lawrence Shiel in 1871 (the invalid excommunication was lifted five months after.)
• Fr Edward McGlynn was excommunicated in 1887 for opposing the establishment of parochial schools believing that they were unnecessary.The excommunication was lifted in 1892.

18th century

• All Catholic members of Freemasonry.^[22]
• Most important supporters of Jansenism, in the 1718 bull Pastoralis officii
• Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Bishop of Autun, by Pope Pius VI

16th century

• James IV of Scotland in 1513 for breaking the Treaty of Perpetual Peace with England.
• Martin Luther in 1520 by Pope Leo X
• Henry VIII of England in 1533, and finally on 17 December 1538 by Pope Paul III
• Thomas Cranmer
• Elizabeth I of England in 1570 by the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis
• Thomas Erastus
• Henry IV of France and Naverre, who famously retaliated by excommunicating the Pope
• Giovanni Bentivoglio, leader of Bologna, in 1506 by Julius II, while the pope was at war with him and leading an army to take Bologna.
• Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, by Julius II in 1510.
• Giulio Cesare of Camerino (father of St Camilla Battista da Varano) was excommunicated in 1501 by Pope Alexander VI for harbouring enemies of the Pope and allegedly assassinating the Pope's cousin

15th century

• Saint Jehanne la Pucelle (Joan of Arc) was excommunicated by Bishop Pierre Cauchon (even though he allowed her Holy Communion immediately before her immolation) on 30 May 1431. She was later fully reconciled to the Catholic Church at her posthumous Trial of Nullification on 7 July 1456.
• Jan Hus
• Girolamo Savonarola, was an Italian Dominican friar, excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI in 1497. Alexander demanded his arrest and execution.

14th century

• Antipopes at Avignon Clement VII and Benedict XIII and their followers by proxy
• Barnabò Visconti, tyrant of Milan, by Blessed Urban V in 1363. This was later rescinded after Barnabo restored castles he had seized and peace was concluded between him and the papal states.
• Mercenary bands known as the 'free companies' that had overrun Italy and France were excommunicated by Blessed Urban V in 1366. Included in this excommunication were the German Count of Landau and the Englishman Sir John Hawkwood^[23]
• Pedro the Cruel of Navarre was excommunicated by Blessed Urban V for his persecutions of clergy and cruelty.^[23]
• King Philip the Fair of France in 1303 by Pope Boniface VIII, for failing to respond adequately to a papal letter regarding Philip's effective rejection of the pope's temporal authority.
• Ladislaus Kán, Hungarian noble regent of the region of Transylvania that was excommunicated in 1309 by the pope's envoy Gentilis for not handing over the Holy Crown of Hungary, that was being kept illegally by him.
• Máté Csák, Hungarian noble that was excommunicated in 1311 by the pope's envoy Gentilis, for not accepting the new King Charles I of Hungary.
• Robert the Bruce, King of Scots 1306-1329, was excommunicated followin his killing of the Red Comyn before the altar of the Greyfriars Church at Dumfries in 1306.^[24]
• William de Lamberton, Bishop of St Andrews.
• David de Moravia, Bishop of Moray.
• Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow.

13th century

• The King John of England by Pope Innocent III
• The King Andrew II of Hungary, was excommunicated in 1231 after not following the points of Golden Bull of 1222, a seminal bill of rights, which contained new dispositions related to the tithe and hostile practices against the jews and islamics in the Kingdom.
• Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
• The King Ladislaus IV of Hungary in 1279, by the pope's envoy Philip, for acting against the Catholic Church and living in a pagan way with the Cumans.
• James II of Aragon, in 1286 by Pope Boniface VIII for being crowned King of Sicily and thereby usurping a papal fief. His younger brother Frederick III of Sicily was excommunicated for the same reason in 1296.
• Jacopo Colonna and Pietro Colonna, both cardinals, were excommunicated by Pope Boniface VIII in the bull 'excelso throno' (1297) for refusing to surrender their relative Stefano Colonna (who had seized and robbed the pope's nephew) and refusing to give the pope Palestrina along with two fortresses, which threatened the pope. This excommunication was extended in the same year to Jacopo's nephews and their heirs, after the two Colonna cardinals denounced the pope's election as invalid and appealed to a general council.^[25]
• Eric VI of Denmark in 1298, by Pope Boniface VIII, for imprisoning Archbishop of Lund, Jens Grand.^[25]
• the Greek emperor, Michael Palaeologus, of Constantinople, by Pope Martin IV.
• Peter III of Aragon, by Pope Martin IV

12th century

• Frederick I Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, by Alexander III
• Anselm V (Archbishop of Milan) by Pope Honorius II^[26]
• William I of Sicily, by Pope Adrian IV, while the king was waging war against the papal states and raiding pilgrims on their way to the tombs of the apostles.
• Ralph I, Count of Vermandois was said to have been excommunicated in 1142 by Bishop Saint Ivo of Chartres for repudiating his lawful wife and marrying another^[27]
• Roger II of Sicily, was excommunicated under the decrees of the Second Lateran Council in 1139
• Anacletus II, antipope
• Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, excommunicated a second time by Pope Paschal II for refusing to abjure his claim to imperial investitures

11th century

• Michael Cerularius, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, in 1054.

The legal validity of this excommunication has been questioned as it was delivered by legates of Pope Leo IX after the Pope's death. It was declared lifted on December 7, 1965.^[28]

• Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Gregory VII
• Bolesław II the Generous, Duke of Poland, was excommunicated in 1080 after murdering the bishop Saint Stanislaus of Kraków.
• Philip I of France, king of France, for repudiating his marriage and remarrying, by Hugh, Archbishop of Lyon and later reaffirmed by Pope Urban II.

8th Century

The heretic preachers Adalbert and Clement by a council headed by St Boniface in 745. Adelbert's excommunication was not upheld by Rome, however, although Clement's was.

5th century

• Nestorius, proponent of Nestorianism
• Eutyches, proponent of Monophysitism
• Dioscorus I of Alexandria, who presided over the robber council of Ephesus

4th century

• Arius, founder of Arianism

3rd century

• Sabellius, originator of Sabellianism
• Novatian, an early antipope who taught Novatianism
• Paul of Samosata
• Marcellus of Ancyra

2nd century

• Valentinus, proponent of Gnosticism
• Marcion of Sinope, originator of Marcionism
• Montanus, originator of Montanism

1st century

• Simon Magus, early proponent of Gnosticism
• Hymenaeus and Alexander, excommunicated by Paul in the Acts of the Apostles.^[29]

See also

• List of excommunicated cardinals
• Shunning

Notes