Good morning, dear Father Angelo.

I apologize for bothering you. I wanted to ask you a question about excommunication for apostasy. If a baptized Christian, at a certain point, believes in Islam and converts privately, at home, without any witnesses, does he or she incur excommunication? In Islam you don’t need any ritual or witnesses to convert. I would like to know because, unfortunately, this happened to me. I did this act of conversion, which I sincerely regret, in 2018. I did it privately without any witnesses and without ever attending a mosque. It was something said in a low voice in my room.

All my best. Many thanks!!

The priest’s answer.

Dear friend,

1. The important principle to keep in mind in our case is the following: de internis non iudicat Ecclesia (the Church does not impose sanctions for internal acts). This means that the Church imposes the penalties provided for by the Code of Canon Law only for external acts. And therefore for notorious acts, that is, acts known to others.

2. Exclusively internal acts, like the one you committed, are subject only to the sacrament of Penance. Your apostasy was purely internal. It was an objectively grave sin. To be absolved, you simply need to go to any confessor.

3. Excommunications are medicinal interventions intended to help people understand the grave damage inflicted and to dissuade them from committing certain particularly grave sins. Indeed, knowing that a certain sin carries an excommunication has a dissuasive effect.

4. Excommunication is the most serious of the penalties imposed by the Church and consists of the deprivation of a good that is inflicted to correct someone who has committed a crime. A crime, in the canonical sense, means the violation of a law to which a sanction is attached.

5. Excommunications can be of two types: ferendae sententiae or latae sententiae. Ferendae sententiae excommunications are issued after a trial by a judge. Latae sententiae excommunications are imposed simply for doing the forbidden act. In your case, if the matter had been publicized, it would have been a latae sententiae excommunication.

6. Anyone who incurs an excommunication cannot celebrate or receive the sacraments. If they hold any office within the Church, they immediately lose it, nor can they perform any other duties, such as serving at the altar, giving readings, or acting as a godfather or godmother.

7. Thanking the Lord for giving you the opportunity to repent, approach now with confidence the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You will feel a river of peace flowing through your soul.

I wish you all the best. I bless you and will remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo

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