Excommunication can be a public process, like the Pope did with the Mafia, or it can be private. And, if your excommunication ends, it can be a public or a private process. If a person changes or reforms his or her life, he or she can be taken back into the church, absolutely.

How can excommunication be lifted?

Excommunications are lifted when the excommunicated person repents, or at least gives some sign of repenting.

Who was the last person to be excommunicated?

She said Hickey did not consult with Pope John Paul II. The last person to incur public excommunication was Swiss Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, according to Msgr. John Tracy Ellis, a historian. Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 after he consecrated four bishops for a new religious community.