I'm Getting De-Baptized!

[joreth]

 I posted when I sent in my De-Baptism certificate and request to be taken off the registry for the Catholic Church so they could no longer use me in their census-taking.  I really was expecting to be ignored, but when I did a vanity-search on Google (that's where you search the web for your own name), I came across a webpage for The Diocesan Bulletin, apparently the internal newsletter for the diocese in which I was baptized.  

In the newsletter, I saw a request for my baptism certificate.  My name and birthdate were mentioned, but nothing else.  I don't know what the outcome will be, but the church is doing *something* about my request!  I'm shocked and pleased.

Comments

[grail76.livejournal.com]

Since they see Baptism as permanent, I can't imagine how they can de-baptise you. This is theologically interesting (or perhaps organizationally interesting).

[joreth]

Actually, they have a clause in their procedures to remove someone from their registry. This is different from a philosophical argument of whether or not a person is permanently "saved" or not and different from erasing a historical fact, that I *was* baptized. It removes me from their current registry as a member of their congregation. Since, no matter which denomination you look at, I've committed whatever sins are considered "unforgivable", then even philosophically, I'm not "saved" either.

[grail76.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.
I know of a case of someone who was baptised, but then his parents divorced. He was raised by the non -catholic parent as Episcopalian. He became a priest and was married.
Later he investigated converting and using that clause that the Catholic Church uses to allow Married Episcopal priests to continue their priesthood AND their marriage.

They told him he wasn't eligible. He was baptised in a Catholic Church and as far as they were concerned, he was Catholic all along.

You can certainly get off the rolls of a parish.

We were always told in Religion class that we could never assume anyone was in Hell. In Catholic theology, a deathbed request for forgiveness works and Pearly Gates, there you are.

[joreth]

As I said, this was to be removed from the registry, which I explained in the original post on the subject, not a question of whether or not some individual's interpretation of what makes a person a Catholic qualifies me as a Catholic still.

As for who goes to hell, you have the Pope's opinion, you have the teachings of the individual churches, parishes, and schools, and then you have the opinions of each individual who isn't paying as much attention to the Official Doctrine as the critics are. Ask 20 Christians any particular question on doctrine and get 25 different answers.

What you were taught in religion class is not what I was taught in my Catechism, nor my Catholic high school, nor by the priest at either church I attended as a child. The current Pope certainly seems in favor of excommunicating people these days, particularly innocent rape victims while her rapist remains a blessed member of the congregation.

There are 2 interpretations of the "unforgiven sin" within the Catholic doctrine, both of which stem from this passage:

Therefore I say to you, that every kind of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit it will not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the world to come (Mt. 12:31-32).

One interpretation is that blasphemy against god is the one thing he will not forgive you for. If you are unforgiven, you go to hell (the short version) and the Bible clearly states in this passage that we can know when a person is unforgiven.

The other interpretation is that one does not receive forgiveness until one confesses and repents, and if one never repents, then one never becomes forgiven, not that this sin is unpardonable.

Either way, according to the religion that claimed me among their numbers without consent, I am not going to their heaven. Also, since I never completed my Holy Confirmation, one can also argue that I am not truly a Catholic, even if one believes "once a Catholic, always a Catholic".

It is a historical fact that I was baptized, so this is not like an annulment, which wants to pretend that an event never happened. This is more like a divorce, where I'm undoing or changing a currently-registered status.

I did not complete my Confirmation, I publicly reject the existence of God and Jesus, and I identify as an atheist. Therefore, I conclude it is reasonable, even within the delusion of Catholicism, that I am not a Catholic and the church does not deserve to count me among their numbers. Since they have a procedure explicitly for the removal of an individual from their registry, apparently they think my request is not unreasonable also.

[joreth]

And, at any rate, I'm making a point to the church. Since I don't believe in god, heaven or hell, or the authority of the church over me, it's completely meaningless whether some old guys in Italy give me a label or not. I'm making a political point by requesting to be removed from the registry.