23. Excommunication for Faults

If any brother is found to be stubborn or disobedient or proud or a murmurer, or to be opposed in any way to the Holy Rule, and to despise the instructions of his seniors, then, according to our Lord’s teaching, let his seniors counsel him privately a first and second time (Matt 18:15-16).

If he does not change, let him be rebuked publicly before all.

But if, even then, he does not correct this, let him be subject to excommunication if he understands the nature of that punishment. Should he, however, prove unruly, let him be subject to corporal punishment.

 

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The Rule of Benedict by Saint Meinrad Archabbey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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