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Last summer, I declared my formal defection from the Catholic Church by writing the bishop overseeing the parish where my parents had me christened as a baby.

I received a formal confirmation stating that a note had been added to the baptismal record which states that I renounced my status as a baptized person.

I no longer wanted to have any formal connection with an institution I oppose on a variety of political, social and cultural levels, an organisation I never chose to join in the first place.

Why would one allow them to regard you as even provisionally Catholic? What are you afraid of? Do you still have doubts about believing in God and are keeping your options open in case you want to return to the Church?

Originally posted by Storm
Why would one allow them to regard you as even provisionally Catholic? What are you afraid of? Do you still have doubts about believing in God and are keeping your options open in case you want to return to the Church?

1) I didn't even know you could formally renounce your baptism. In fact it surprises me that it's even possible.
2) Baptism is a religious ritual that doesn't really matter to me. Renouncing it is also a religious ritual that doesn't really matter to me for exactly the same reason.

Originally posted by Storm
Why would one allow them to regard you as even provisionally Catholic? What are you afraid of? Do you still have doubts about believing in God and are keeping your options open in case you want to return to the Church?

because where you have been is a fundamental part of where you are now?

it would be like me renouncing that I ever lived in Ontario because I currently believe residing in Manitoba is better, no?

I'm not a religious person now, but my experiences with religion certainly shaped my current "religious" persona

Originally posted by Storm
Do you still have doubts about believing in God and are keeping your options open in case you want to return to the Church? Are you against the possibility of a God, or how the Church managed the subject matter? And if you do have doubts, would you necessarily have to...recommunicate?

Heck, I was baptised Catholic but no one told me for 27 years. lol

Pentacostocatholicoagnosticocyte.

I enjoyed reading the OP. I was born and raised Catholic, now an atheist, had NO idea this was possible. Kinda funny that they have such an official status on things. Makes you wonder how much their numbers are inflated in censuses and world population data and such.

Would not have any desire to do this myself though, probably. If it affected anything in my day-to-day life, sure. But I don't begrudge my upbringing, and "leaving" officially probably isn't worth the time.

Thanks though Storm, interesting stuff.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I didn't even know you could formally renounce your baptism. In fact it surprises me that it's even possible.


Hear, hear.

Up till now I thought it was just, if you're baptised Catholic, you're as Catholic as the Pope no matter what you do with your life.

I wonder if these statistics are brought up for discussion when the Pope goes to talk with St. Peter.

Maybe Catholics allow this, do Baptists or other western denominations allow this too?

I'd be curious to find out.

Many Christian faiths allow you to remove your name from their records as a "member." I actually cannot think of one that does not allow you to "excommunicate" yourself.

Originally posted by Storm

Why would one allow them to regard you as even provisionally Catholic? What are you afraid of? Do you still have doubts about believing in God and are keeping your options open in case you want to return to the Church? would it really matter even if you did? i mean, say next year you decide you believe in the catholic faith again and would like to be baptised once more. are they really going to say no?

that said, i don't really like the idea of artificially adding to their numbers but i wouldn't even know how to go about doing this. i don't remember where i was baptised and don't really want to have to ask my mother. last time i tried telling her i was atheist she just cried and said that she wished she took me to church more when i was little, and how she wants me to go to heaven with her etc. i'm certainly not under the impression that god would give me a free pass just because i never officially renounced my baptism.

LOL!
Just goes to show Catholics have a lot of nonsensical stuff.

I, too, was baptised and raised as a Roman Catholic (now Agnostic), yet I have never heard of this before.

Cool beans though.

Originally posted by dadudemon
Many Christian faiths allow you to remove your name from their records as a "member." I actually cannot think of one that does not allow you to "excommunicate" yourself.

This seems to make sense to me. I don't see why Religions should be treated differently than Businesses (or if you want to be nicer Clubs), and in those you also have the ability to cancel your subscription or your membership. That it may not matter really is another thing though.