Roman Catholics?

Question

What sort of things get one immediately excommunicated from the church? Does anything guarantee hell?

Answer 1

+ Excommunication +

Excommunication is a severe penalty resulting from grave crimes against the Catholic religion.

It is imposed by church authority or incurred as a direct result of the commission of an offense.

Excommunication excludes the offender from taking part in the Eucharist or other sacraments and from the exercise of any ecclesiastical office, ministry, or function.

In other words, it kicks you out of the Catholic Church. It does not necessarily condemn you to hell.

There are two types of excommunication
+ a jure - by law. The law itself declares that whosoever shall have been guilty of a definite crime will incur the penalty of excommunication.
+ ab homine - by judicial act of man. An ecclesiastical prelate issues a serious order under pain of excommunication or imposes excommunication by judicial sentence and after a criminal trial.

There are a few offenses for which Latin Rite Roman Catholics are automatically excommunicated (the Latin term is Latæ Sententiæ):
+ Apostasy - the formal renunciation of one's religion, especially if the motive is deemed unworthy
+ Heresy
+ Desecration of the Eucharist
+ Physical force against the Pope
+ Attempted sacramental absolution of a partner in adultery
+ Ordination of a bishop without a Papal mandate (e.g. all bishops in the government-run Chinese Patriotic Church)
+ For non-electors present in the conclave, revelation of the details of the conclave
+ Simoniacal provision of the Papal office
+ Violation of the sacramental seal of confession by a priest or bishop
+ Procurement of a completed abortion

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05678a.htm

+ Hell +

Not just any sin will send you straight to hell. Only mortal sins can do that.

Sin is a deliberate thought, word, deed, or omission contrary to the eternal law of God.

A mortal sin is a grave infraction of the law of God that destroys the divine life in the soul of the sinner (sanctifying grace), constituting a turn away from God. For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must be present: grave matter, full knowledge of the evil of the act, and full consent of the will.

Most of the sins we commit are venial sins. Venial sin is a sin which does not destroy the divine life in the soul, as does mortal sin, though it diminishes and wounds it. Venial sin is the failure to observe necessary moderation, in lesser matters of the moral law, or in grave matters acting without full knowledge or complete consent.

However consistent unrepentant venial sins can slowly destroy your relationship with God and become mortal sin.

People die all the time with venial sins on their conscience and they will go to heaven.

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect1chpt1art8.htm#1854

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 2

>>What sort of things get one immediately excommunicated from the church?<<

Apostasy (canon 1364),
Heresy (canon 1364),
Schism (canon 1364),
Desecration of the Eucharist (canon 1367),
Physical violence against the Pope (canon 1370),
Attempted sacramental absolution of a partner in a sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue (canon 1378),
Ordination of a bishop without papal mandate (canon 1382),
Direct violation of the sacramental seal of confession by a confessor (canon 1388),
Procurement of a completed abortion (canon 1398), or
Being a conspiring or necessary accomplice in any of the above (canon 1329).

>>Does anything guarantee hell?<<

Yes -- not repenting of mortal sin.

Answer 3

You pretty much have to be a clergyman and preach heresy to be truly 'excommunicated' nowadays

Answer 4

There are some unforgivable sins that if you do, they guarantee you will go to hell because those sins won't be forgiven.
I always wonder how they come up with that...

Answer 5

things like heretical teaching,written material that contradicts Catholic dogma and what a lot of people may not know,having or assisting in anyway abortions.

Answer 6

NOT Molesting BOYS!

NOT getting Transferred to Another Parish for Molesting BOYS!

NOT having the Parish PAY THE PARENTS TO SHUT THEM UP because their CHILD was Molested by A Priest!

Need I go on OR WILL THERE BE MORE COVER UP?

Thanks, RR

Answer 7

Sure - if you steal the Pope's pointy hat, you're in serious trouble. He'll smite the holy heck out of you.

Answer 8

Proposing that the earth moves around the sun will get you every time.

Answer 9

Questioning a decision made by the Pope.

Answer 10

.Get yourself forgiven so they have nothing they can use to excommunicate you.