Candace Owens must be excommunicated — for the sake of her soul
I do not write these words lightly.
To call for the excommunication of a fellow Catholic is not rhetorical theater. It is not partisan strategy. It is not personal grievance. It is, if it is anything at all, an act of trembling seriousness.
And yet, Candace Owens must be excommunicated.
Excommunication in the Catholic Church is not spiritual exile. It is a severe mercy. It is medicinal. Its purpose is not humiliation but repentance. It is meant to awaken a soul and to protect the faithful — when grave, public distortion of the faith places others in danger.
Candace Owens is not merely a political commentator who happens to be Catholic. She has become one of the most influential voices shaping Gen Z Catholics in America. Her reach is vast. Her words travel faster than bishops’ letters. For many young Catholics who feel disoriented by cultural chaos and ecclesial confusion, she appears strong, decisive, unafraid.
But influence carries proportionate responsibility. When that influence is wrapped in Catholic identity while gravely misrepresenting Catholic teaching — particularly in ways that contradict the Church’s explicit moral and doctrinal commitments — the damage is not merely political. It is ecclesial and spiritual.
The decisive issue is not that she holds controversial views. Catholics may disagree about prudential policy questions. The decisive issue is that she speaks as though she represents authentic Catholic teaching while publicly distorting what the Church actually teaches.
The Church does not outsource doctrine to social media influencers. Especially not to someone so recently received into the Church who now speaks as though she possesses the authority of those entrusted with guarding the apostolic faith.
Under the Code of Canon Law, obstinate, public distortion of teachings that require assent can constitute grave matter especially when it causes scandal. When a Catholic with global reach repeatedly frames her interpretations as faithful Catholicism while contradicting authoritative teaching, the matter ceases to be political commentary. It becomes doctrinal confusion on a mass scale.
We have seen bishops act decisively when clarity was required.
In 2010, Bishop Thomas Olmsted declared that St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center could no longer be called Catholic after administrators authorized a direct abortion in contradiction to Church teaching. Sister Margaret McBride incurred automatic excommunication for her cooperation in that act. Bishop Olmsted’s intervention was controversial, painful, and widely debated. But he acted because the integrity of Catholic teaching — and the salvation of souls — required unmistakable clarity. His decision was not an act of vengeance, but an exercise of pastoral governance.
That example matters. The Church disciplines her own when public contradiction of core teaching creates scandal and confusion among the faithful. The purpose is not to punish but to delineate the boundaries of authentic Catholic witness.
Candace Owens commands enormous digital authority. When she speaks about Jews and Judaism in ways that contradict the Church’s magisterial commitments, many young Catholics assume they are hearing legitimate Catholic teaching. When polemic is presented as orthodoxy, the faithful are misled.
The bishops are the authentic teachers of the flock. Not viral personalities.
This is not about suppressing disagreement. It is about protecting the integrity of the Church’s teaching authority and preventing scandal. I wish young people spent as much time reading Sacred Scripture as they do consuming social media clips. A generation hungry for truth is being formed more by algorithms than by the Word of God.
If public distortion persists — and if correction is refused — then discipline may become an act of charity. Excommunication would not declare her beyond hope. It would clarify that her platform does not speak for the Church. It would mark a boundary between Catholic doctrine and personal polemic.
And it would be for her soul as well.
To wield extraordinary influence while gravely misrepresenting the faith places one in real spiritual peril. Our Lord did not mince words about the danger of leading others astray: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6)
Bishop Olmsted acted because clarity was necessary. If a diocesan bishop were to determine that canonical thresholds have been met in this case — after dialogue, warning, and pastoral effort — he would not be acting out of politics. He would be exercising his duty as shepherd.
The alternative is more corrosive: a generation of Gen Z Catholics increasingly unsure who speaks with authority in the Church, increasingly formed by charismatic personalities rather than apostolic teaching, increasingly equating outrage with fidelity.
As St. Paul exhorts us, we are called to be “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). And as Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Caritas in Veritate, “Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality.”
Sometimes love requires courage — not the courage of spectacle, but the courage to guard the flock and to call even the powerful to repentance, for the sake of their souls and ours.
Simone Rizkallah helped launch the Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism (CCAA) in October 2023, which now advances its mission at the Institute of Religion and Democracy. The Coalition is committed to rejecting antisemitism, strengthening Catholic–Jewish solidarity, and building bridges of solidarity with persecuted communities everywhere.A first-generation American of Egyptian-Armenian descent, she is a Catholic educator, speaker, writer, and host of the Beyond Rome podcast. She holds a graduate degree in Theological Studies with an emphasis in Systematic Theology from Christendom College.
