Is it possible to stop being catholic

Some of the best Catholics are "reverts" who suddenly returned with fervor to the faith. When you leave the Church by a formal act. In Canon Law, this is known as "defection from the Catholic Church by a formal act" in Latin: actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia catholica. The details of how you do this practically were recently clarified by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts on 13 March Here is the essential excerpt:. For the abandonment of the Catholic Church to be validly configured as a true actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia so that the exceptions foreseen in the previously mentioned canons would apply, it is necessary that there concretely be:.

It remains clear, in any event, that the sacramental bond of belonging to the Body of Christ that is the Church, conferred by the baptismal character, is an ontological and permanent bond which is not lost by reason of any act or fact of defection.

Someone can be in "apostacy", drifted away, or may have formally ceased being Catholic by writing a letter. However, once Baptism is conferred upon someone, the sacramental bond can never be undone, even though the saving grace and power can be lost through sin, or through a formal act of defection.

An aquaintence of ours grew up with a bad father. He changed his name because he wanted to cut all ties.

We can renounce our parents, formally change our name and vow never see them again. We can burn pictures of our childhood. Until recently, it was possible to leave the Catholic Church by completing a "declaration of defection" and submitting it to them. The process involved the following steps: Complete a declaration of defection.

Send it to your local diocese. Realize that they may request a meeting to discuss your decision. You don't have to comply, but you do need to respond to the request or they may use this as an excuse not to process your request. They used to honor these declarations; however, it appears that they are no longer willing to do so. Evidently, too many people were leaving, and this began to make their organization look like it had a problem. Instead of heeding numerous calls to implement effective solutions , they opted to deny former Catholics with a way out see this extremely discouraging report from The Washington Post.

The answer to each question is the same: power. Renunciation forces the Catholic church to listen to what it refuses to hear: I reject your claim of authority over me. You cannot tell me what to do or think, how to live, whom I love or marry, what I do with my body. I am gone and you will do me this courtesy: stay the hell out of my life. Write to the archbishop of the diocese of your baptism. Reference Australian privacy principle 13 and demand the record be corrected.

Specify the correction you want. Feel free to use it or try taking it further. Demand that evidence of the amendment be provided within 30 days.

After then you might be in a position, if necessary, to lodge a complaint to the information commissioner. Still, the challenge remains for the Catholic church to do so much better.

I call on the church to introduce an official mechanism to fully, formally record renunciations; a register of renunciation cross-referenced to baptismal records. The mechanism should be accessible through all archdiocesan websites. The same can be done everywhere. Atheism Expert. Austin Cline, a former regional director for the Council for Secular Humanism, writes and lectures extensively about atheism and agnosticism. Cite this Article Format. Cline, Austin.

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