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Objection 1: It would seem that every priest can excommunicate.
For excommunication is an act of the keys. But every priest has the
keys. Therefore every priest can excommunicate.
Objection 2: Further, it is a greater thing to loose and bind in
the tribunal of penance than in the tribunal of judgment. But every
priest can loose and bind his subjects in the tribunal of Penance.
Therefore every priest can excommunicate his subjects.
On the contrary, Matters fraught with danger should be left to the
decision of superiors. Now the punishment of excommunication is
fraught with many dangers, unless it be inflicted with moderation.
Therefore it should not be entrusted to every priest.
I answer that, In the tribunal of conscience the plea is between man
and God, whereas in the outward tribunal it is between man and man.
Wherefore the loosing or binding of one man in relation to God alone,
belongs to the tribunal of Penance, whereas the binding or loosing of
a man in relation to other men, belongs to the public tribunal of
external judgment. And since excommunication severs a man from the
communion of the faithful, it belongs to the external tribunal.
Consequently those alone can excommunicate who have jurisdiction in the
judicial tribunal. Hence, of their own authority, only bishops and
higher prelates, according to the more common opinion can
excommunicate, whereas parish priests can do so only by commission or
in certain cases, as those of theft, rapine and the like, in which
the law allows them to excommunicate. Others, however, have
maintained that even parish priests can excommunicate: but the former
opinion is more reasonable.
Reply to Objection 1: Excommunication is an act of the keys not
directly, but with respect to the external judgment. The sentence of
excommunication, however, though it is promulgated by an external
verdict, still, as it belongs somewhat to the entrance to the
kingdom, in so far as the Church Militant is the way to the Church
Triumphant, this jurisdiction whereby a man is competent to
excommunicate, can be called a key. It is in this sense that some
distinguish between the key of orders, which all priests have, and the
key of jurisdiction in the tribunal of judgment, which none have but
the judges of the external tribunal. Nevertheless God bestowed both
on Peter (Mt. 16:19), from whom they are derived by others,
whichever of them they have.
Reply to Objection 2: Parish priests have jurisdiction indeed over
their subjects, in the tribunal of conscience, but not in the judicial
tribunal, for they cannot summons them in contentious cases. Hence
they cannot excommunicate, but they can absolve them in the tribunal of
Penance. And though the tribunal of Penance is higher, yet more
solemnity is requisite in the judicial tribunal, because therein it is
necessary to make satisfaction not only to God but also to man.
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