The Rev. Beverly Bingle has been in the news again recently, first in an article I wrote about the Reformed Catholic Church, and then in an item from The Blade’s ombudsman, Jack Lessenberry. Let me bring up two Latin terms in response: mea culpa and latae sententiae.

In the article about the Reformed Catholic Church, which has its global headquarters in Toledo, I noted that Rev. Bingle, a Roman Catholic, has presided at Reformed Catholic services.

I reported that she was ordained by a dissident organization, Roman Catholic WomenPriests, which is not recognized by Rome, but I put three words together in describing her: “Roman Catholic priest.” That’s not the case. Mea culpa — my fault. She is a priest, and she’s Roman Catholic, but her ordination is from Roman Catholic WomenPriests, not part of the Roman Catholic Church.

When she was ordained, she was automatically excommunicated; that’s the term latae sententiae. But being excommunicated does not mean that you’re kicked out of the church.

The Rev. Monte Hoyles, the chancellor of the Diocese of Toledo, who has an advanced degree in canon law, wrote an explanation to help me understand. He began, “While the church is a graced community, the sinfulness of its members leads to violations of church faith and order, hence there is a need for an official framework to deal with such violations.”

Excommunication is in that framework as “the strongest and most severe of all the censures used by the church,” Father Hoyles wrote. It is intended to be “medicinal,” leaving a path for the censured person to return to the church in good standing.

An excommunicated person is denied what many see as the most important part of religious observance, the sacraments, including the Eucharist, which is what many call communion: the sharing of the bread and wine that their church believes changes into the body and blood of Jesus. Withholding communion is extreme spiritual discipline.

“Somebody who’s excommunicated is encouraged and welcomed to remain a part of the community,” said Peter Feldmeier, who holds the Murray/Bacik chair of Catholic studies at the University of Toledo. “The idea is to hopefully return that person to full communion and heal whatever needs to be healed.”

The term “excommunicate” refers to “no communion.” It doesn’t mean “no communication,” commonly called “shunning,” what the Amish, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientologists, and a few other churches do in varying degrees to people who leave their church. And it doesn’t mean “no community,” for the door usually remains open so those who change their ways can return.

Some actions bring automatic excommunication — just by taking the action, a person invokes censure and removes herself or himself from full church life, and no formal pronouncement of violation is needed. Attempted ordination of a woman is on that list, for both the ordaining bishop and the ordained woman.

Rev. Bingle was excommunicated but, she said, “The only way I would not be a Roman Catholic is if I said I don’t want to be one.”

Before she became a Roman Catholic WomanPriest, she had been a church worker from 1991 to 2011, including serving as the pastoral associate at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and pastoral assistant at St. Richard Catholic Church in Swanton.

In 2012 she was ordained a deacon by Roman Catholic WomenPriests Bishop Joan Houk, and in 2013 the bishop ordained her to be a priest. Rev. Bingle’s ceremonies were only attempted ordinations according to Rome because Rev. Bingle is a woman, and to be licit and valid, church law requires the ordained person to be male.

The dissident women’s ordinations are done in part, according to Roman Catholic WomenPriests, to prompt change and renew the Roman Catholic Church. Also, in part, the women priests answer what they believe is a divine call to ministry.

“Everyone who knows [Rev. Bingle] says she is an excellent human being, an excellent Christian, and a skilled minister,” Mr. Feldmeier said. But that doesn’t give her priestly standing in the Roman Catholic Church, he added.

While the WomenPriests, automatically excommunicated, assert that they continue as Roman Catholics, they are also perceived as a break-off faction.

“They’re not a community united with the church at large, they’re not a community united with the local bishop, they aren’t institutionally united,” Mr. Feldmeier said. “It’s not that I’m not sympathetic to women in [the priesthood], but I’m not sympathetic to the claim that they’re fully part of the Roman Catholic Church. I think that they’re a separate ecclesial community.”

One indication of separation is the Holy Spirit Catholic Community, a congregation Rev. Bingle started that worships in a Catholic manner but is open to all. The openness is contrary to Roman Catholic doctrine. Holy Spirit meets for worship Saturdays at 4:30 p.m. and Sundays at 5:30 p.m. at Unity of Toledo, 3535 Executive Pkwy., and the community has other programs, as well.

Another indication is that the Ohio secretary of state’s office conferred on Rev. Bingle the authority to solemnize marriages as a minister ordained by Roman Catholic WomenPriests; she is not in the Roman Catholic Church category.

“I think that Bev is a priest of the Roman Catholic WomenPriests community,” Mr. Feldmeier said, “but not a Roman Catholic priest.”

Having been automatically excommunicated, is Rev. Bingle still Roman Catholic? Yes.

Is the medicinal aspect of excommunication effective for her? No; she will continue to minister as a Roman Catholic WomanPriest.

“Repentance, reconciliation, and lifting of the censure will restore the individual to the life-giving grace that flows from the sacraments as well as to the communion found in [the] universal sacrament of salvation, which is the Church,” Father Hoyles wrote. Will that happen with Rev. Bingle? Not likely.

And will she continue as a reverend? Definitely. As a Roman Catholic WomanPriest, Rev. Bingle will live her vision of what the Roman Catholic Church could be.

Perhaps Rev. Bingle’s action that brought about her excommunication will lead to the change she wants. Just don’t look for it soon.

First Published January 31, 2015, 5:00 a.m.