बहिष्कार (en. Excommunication)

For example, in most American dioceses priests already have the permission to do exactly what Francis is allowing: to lift the penalty of excommunication and absolve the sin of procuring abortion.

This excommunication meant that other Jews were not to associate with them at all.

On one level, Pope Francis is extending a practice that has now become common in many places and making it universal throughout the Catholic Church: not all Catholic dioceses or bishops allow their priests to lift excommunication along with absolving the sin of procured abortion.

The battle cemented their independence, and in 1320 the Pope wrote the Declaration of Arbroath, declaring Scotland independent, lifting the excommunication from Robert the Bruce, and naming St. Andrew the patron saint of Scotland forever.

For example, in most American dioceses priests already have the permission to do exactly what Pope Francis is allowing: to lift the penalty of excommunication and absolve the sin of procuring abortion.

Historians tell of a Bishop in 1867 who threatened the punishment of excommunication for the sin of playing Carnival games.