Throwing Away The Sacred Species

A reader writes:

When I was younger I had no faith.  I had graduated from RCIA a year earlier, but lost all of my faith rather quickly.  After a few months of going to Mass against my will, I took the Eucharist out of church and threw it away.  I did this to the best of my memory 4 times, and one time I gave it to a non -catholic friend.  At the time I did it, I did not believe in the actual presence in the Eucharist.  I knew as I did this, that is was considered terrible.  A few months ago I found my faith and went to confession to receive absolution.  The priest absolved me of those terrible sins. 

I did some research afterwards and found out that what I did causes automatic excommunication that only the Holy See could lift and my first confession was invalid.  I was terrified to hear this. 

I was wondering that since at the time I did not know that there was the penalty of excommunication for this, did I actually receive the penalty?  I did not do this to harm the Catholic Church; I have no idea what drove me to do this.  Part of it was I did not believe, part of it was a catholic friends constant calling Protestants cult members.  Thank you for anything you have to say…

First let me say that I’m glad that you have regained your faith and that you have turned back to God and sought reconciliation for what was done. It is wonderful that God is working in your life and has helped you find your way back to him.

I can also assure you that you are not under the penalty of excommunication and that the confession and absolution would have been valid.

Knowing that something is considered a terrible sin–and even believing yourself that it is a terrible sin–is not enough to subject one to the penalty of excommunication.

The Code of Canon Law provides that:

Can. 1324 §1. The
perpetrator of a violation is not exempt from a penalty, but the penalty
established by law or precept must be tempered or a penance employed in its
place if the delict was committed: . . .

9/ by a person who without negligence did not know
that a penalty was attached to a law or precept;

So, if you didn’t know that throwing away the sacred species carried the penalty of automatic excommunication then you’re not automatically excommunicated. Canon 1324 provides that for a person such as yourself (a non-canon law expert who would not be expected to know that this penalty existed and who thus was not negligent) must have any penalty that the law provides tempered (lessened).

The law provides automatic excommunication for throwing away the sacred species, so if this gets tempered (lessened) it ceases to be automatic excommunication. The alternative would be a penalty imposed on you by an ecclesiastical court. Since (I assume) no ecclesiastical court has met and convicted you and imposed any penalty on you, you are not under a penalty.

You also won’t be, because you’ve repented of the sin and sought reconciliation. Penalties like this are used for purposes of making someone wake up to an ongoing sin that they need to correct. Since you have already self-corrected, the Church would not hold a court proceeding to impose a penalty on you.

If this were an ongoing behavior of yours then you could indeed be subject to a penalty, but it’s not, and so you’re not.

You’ve turned back to God and to the Church, been reconciled and forgiven, and you should regard the matter as closed.

I hope this helps, and God bless you!

20

P.S. Don’t listen to your friends calling Protestants a "cult." Used in this way, the word "cult" is a silly-putty term of contempt that does not have objective meaning. I do not encourage its use. (NOTE: There are other, neutral senses in which the term "cult" can be used legitimately–e.g., "a system of worship or devotion"–but when "cult" is used to mean "bad religious group" it’s simply a brickbat hurled at people you don’t like.)

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin