in catholicism, if you convert to protestantism are you excommunicated?

------what if you decide to become catholic again, do you have to be re-communicated?----------

As far as I know I have not been excommunicate.

In the liberty and grace and peace and joy I found in Christ outside of the narrow prison of tradition and ritual of the catholic church....I am merely a reprobate.

I could go in a box, tell some sinner my sin, say my 10 hail Marys and take communion the same day

Don't worry none of them ever take anyone off their books. If they did that they would be down to 10% of their claimed majority, and thus lose their influence. .

Practicing Shaman.... quantum physics rocks.

The most important thing you must understand that God give us freewill .freedom don't worry just repent to God..God will make know all the things you want.

No, you are not excommunicated. I converted to Pentecostal when I was a teen. I notified the Vatican, just in case they wanted to excommunicate me! They responded that they respected my decision and wished me well in my walk with God.

If we descend to messy reality, we will find that what happens is that a person who never read the Bible, never really prayed, gets turned on to this by a non-Catholic and concludes that since he found God through this protestant it must be that Protestantism is the answer. It is backward but not unlike becoming friends with the first person who was genuinely friendly to you.

The next Doctor of the Church is a convert to Catholicism and former anti-Catholic. I well expect this honor to revitalize the Catholic Church. We'll see.

Excommunication means to be out of communion with the Catholic Church. It is a declaration of something that is not obvious.

If you convert to Protestantism, it is obvious that you have left the church, so excommunication is not needed.

If you decide to come back, you simply have to go to confession and confess the sin of missing Mass and you are back in communion.

If you left the Catholic Church why would you care if you were excommunicated or not?

And yes... you can come back to the Church, even after years of heretical practice. As long as you repent and live the life of a practicing Catholic...

You are not excommunicated. To return, you merely need to go to confession.

Converting to protestantism would take a Catholic out of communion with the Catholic Church. It's a self-imposed excommunication.

If the person chooses to return to the church, they will have to make a renewed Profession of Faith.