Marriage, Society and the Church
SIR,—The remarks of both Mr. Steward and Dean Robins seem to be made in the worldly sense, for they disregard the fact that once a person has been baptised and becomes a member of Christ's flock he or she cannot be turned out. The excommunication of laymen or laywomen is therefore impossible and always has been so. Neither the Pope nor any bishop has any authority, power or discretion to refuse the Sacraments to any baptised divorcee except of course the sacrament of matrimony. Excommunication is confined to the clergy as clergy—that is to say to prohibit priests who offend against the laws of God from officiating. Such priests, however, always have the right to receive the sacraments as laymen.
It follows that excommunications of lay persons as recorded in Church history, and these are very few indeed, are not excommuni- cations in the ordinary and accepted sense. Thus, although Queen Elizabeth I was formally excommunicated by Pope Pius V in 1570, the Queen had in fact excommunicated herself some years previously by setting up a heretical church within any authority either divine or human, of which church she had declared herself to be the head. The actual excommunication was therefore a formality which
had no real effect.--,Yours G. W. R. THOMSON. 13 Kings Hall Road, Beckenham, Kent.
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