Excommunication

(ěks-kom-mu-ne-kā'shūn.) [L. excommunicatio, a withholding from communion.] (Eccl.) An act of ecclesiastical censure by which a person is excluded from communion with the Church. In the Roman Catholic Church, the E. is of two degrees the greater, or Anathema (q. v.), and the le , or Excommunicatio, by which the offender is only prohibited from participating in the sacraments and in public worship. [s. 349]