diff --git a/src/sys/error/err.c b/src/sys/error/err.c
index c01681c49f7..ec588c6bf98 100644
--- a/src/sys/error/err.c
+++ b/src/sys/error/err.c
@@ -289,28 +289,6 @@ PetscErrorCode  PetscErrorMessage(int errnum,const char *text[],char **specific)
   PetscFunctionReturn(0);
 }
 
-#if defined(PETSC_CLANGUAGE_CXX)
-/* C++ exceptions are formally not allowed to propagate through extern "C" code. In practice, far too much software
- * would be broken if implementations did not handle it it some common cases. However, keep in mind
- *
- *   Rule 62. Don't allow exceptions to propagate across module boundaries
- *
- * in "C++ Coding Standards" by Sutter and Alexandrescu. (This accounts for part of the ongoing C++ binary interface
- * instability.) Having PETSc raise errors as C++ exceptions was probably misguided and should eventually be removed.
- */
-#include <sstream>
-static void PetscCxxErrorThrow() {
-  const char *str;
-  if (eh && eh->ctx) {
-    std::ostringstream *msg;
-    msg = (std::ostringstream*) eh->ctx;
-    str = msg->str().c_str();
-  } else str = "Error detected in C PETSc";
-
-  throw std::exception(str);
-}
-#endif
-
 #undef __FUNCT__
 #define __FUNCT__ "PetscError"
 /*@C