Excommunication is used for people who repeatedly offend the church via some dogmatic means, not for people who commit crimes while staying inside its structures.
"A person may be ferendae sententiae (i.e., upon judicial review) excommunicated if he:
...
4. who breaks a penal law allowing excommunication that was enacted on local level, which the local authority, however, may only do with great caution and for grave offences (for Latin Catholics, can. 1318 CIC)."
I would expect molesting children to be grave enough.
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Why do you think so? I believe they can be excommunicated. There's a known process around it, even if rarely used.
Excommunication is used for people who repeatedly offend the church via some dogmatic means, not for people who commit crimes while staying inside its structures.
Wikipedia:
"A person may be ferendae sententiae (i.e., upon judicial review) excommunicated if he:
...
4. who breaks a penal law allowing excommunication that was enacted on local level, which the local authority, however, may only do with great caution and for grave offences (for Latin Catholics, can. 1318 CIC)."
I would expect molesting children to be grave enough.
Is this rule even used at all?
Yes https://web.archive.org/web/20141109230706/http://www.huffin...
I wholeheartedly hope to see this happen in Poland.