Automatic Excommunication IS Automatic with No Defense

[Tishdugan at AOL.COM]

I know my Latin isn't what it should be, but Ms. Hartigan's information on
excommunication and abortion is wrong.  There is most definitely automatic
excommunication.  The Translation of the Code from the Canon Law Society of
America is the most reliable source for the law in English.  It says that
Canon 1398 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states:  A person who procures a
completed abortion incurs an automatic  (latae sententiae) excommunication.
It is automatic and that is why the code actually says it.  Another example
of an automatic excommunication would be assaulting the Pope. There aren't
many of these in the Code, but they do exist.  The decscription Emily
Hartigan outlined is more like an American evaluation of the status of a
Catholic in a marriage outside the Catholic Church after a divorce.  The
abortion sanction is real, automatic and specifically spelled out that way in
the canon (statute).

    The other question that was raised is the hard one. The fact that the
excommunication is automatic means that the issue of a defense is moot.
There is no defense.  There is no process.  You are excommunicated and the
next step is to try to remedy it.  You don't defend.  In fact, the lack of
administrative forums is a huge problem in handling evertyhing from the
pastor with sticky fingers to the pedophile priest.  Once you have an
automatic excommunication, it is a done deal.  The only next step is
confession, penance and repair of your status back into the Church.

    Finally, as you can see from the above canon, the real problem with all
of this is defining "procure".  There are quite a few theories on this and
they remain debated today.

Tish Dugan