Excommunicado Is Back

90-second read

The first time I ever heard the term ‘excommunication’ was when we studied King Henry VIII at school. He was excommunicated by Pope Paul III after defying papal authority, so Henry thought…‘fine, I’ll just go start my own church then,’ and he went on to make himself as head of the Church of England.

Excommunication means you’ve broken a core rule and the whole system cuts you off. You lose access, support, and protection. It’s a very effective way for an institution to say, “You’re no longer part of this.”

Flash forward 500 years, and the next time I heard the term was in an action movie. In John Wick, Keanu Reeves plays an assassin who breaks a cardinal rule and is declared ‘excommunicado’. Same idea: break the rule, lose the network.

And then it appeared again.

I was watching the news the other day when a report popped up about the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) dispute with the Roman Catholic Church. The situation is still ongoing, and we’re not here to adjudicate it. But essentially, the group defied papal orders by consecrating new bishops without approval, and was expelled from the Church.

Understand that under Catholic canon law, excommunication is a very serious penalty, and has real consequences. It blocks access to sacraments, marriage, and Church office.

 So the Catholic Church is not playing here.

I always thought excommunication was something from the past, or something that only existed in fictional worlds like John Wick. But the more I looked into it, the more obvious that the practice still exists, just under new names.

I mean, look at Carlos Ghosn. He went from being the saviour of Nissan, to being arrested, stripped of his titles and role, publicly disowned by the company. He ended up having to flee Japan hidden inside an audio equipment case.

Then there is sport.

Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life from competitive cycling for doping offences.

Major online platforms do this too. When a creator is removed from YouTube and loses all monetisation, it’s a form of excommunication. Access revoked, privileges gone.

But excommunication isn’t always fatal.

The Church of England is doing just fine by today’s standards. Nissan, in the middle of its own crisis, would probably take Carlos Ghosn back tomorrow if they could. And John Wick: Chapter 5 is already in development.

Time really is a flat circle. The punishment repeats. So, it turns out, does the comeback.