Has anyone wrote to the church to officially denounce their religion?

[WynnieBagel]

I not longer want to be affiliated with the Catholic Church.

I've been Athiest for years.

You may think if I don't believe then why do I feel the need to do that, but I still feel that I don't want at my name on their registry or files. I don't want to be listed as Catholic in their books. I want at it to be known officially. I don't want to be listed as something I am not because I was forced to he somewhere as a child.

Has anyone done this? Did you receive a response?

You can't renounce it. You may reject it completely. But sacraments can't be undone.

I don't think the OP wants to expunge her baptismal records, just to be removed from the census of the faithful. I feel the same as her. I don't want to be counted as part of such a corrupt and deeply immoral organization.

@Noeuf no, they keep records of sacraments given. Baptism, weddings etc. But don't have electoral roles as the CofE do.

At the end of day it doesn't really matter does it? Many records held by religious organisations, governments depts, are now not very reliable. I have filled out many forms with spurious information just for the hell of it, nobody ever challenges you. In this day and age you can self identify as anything you like. I would have thought the national Census has a clearer sense of what people generally "are". Most people will put "no religion" even if they were bapitised, many people put "jedi knight" as a protest.

I always put "no religion" even though I am baptised, went to a Catholic school, and would probably call myself a "Christian" even though I don't believe in Jesus or the writings of the Bible.

Op any organisation set up to do good will be infiltrated by evil people. Schools, charities, churches, hospitals. I agree that the Christian faith has been decimated by child abuse scandals but that doesn’t change the fact that people have faith and are religious. Don’t attack them for that. Churches still do wonderful work in the community. My church sustains a beautiful historic building, creates and sustains a wonderful community of people, directly helps local homeless people and uses its resources to help children and spread a positive message. I believe the catholic faith is the biggest non government aid agency in the world running schools and hospitals and making an enormous contribution that is good.

I suspect every priest and bishop I know, would read the letter, say ok then file it in the circular filing cabinet. Particularly if it's a random person they do t know.

Bluerussian ‘Has anyone wrote’ is perfectly correct in Scots and probably other regional variations of English as well.

Sorry @WynnieBagel I asked about your parents because my father was very angry at his parents for having damned his soul by baptising him Catholic but him becoming apostate. I don't think he ever truly forgave them.

I'm not sure about the Catholic Church, but the Anglican church has an electoral roll of people who wish to be on it. This is renewed every few years and if you don't ask to be on it again you will be removed. So in your situation you would already no longer be on any list.

Hi, Catholic here. I don’t think you can do this as it there is no official list for this purpose so to speak. For the following reason: Catholic teaching is that there are 7 sacraments. These were instituted by Jesus.
They are Baptism, Holy Communion, Matrimony, Confirmation, Holy Orders (priesthood), Penance (Confession) and Last Rite.
Of those Baptism and Holy Orders give the soul an indelible mark - it cannot be removed and is eternal - even for after physical death.
So basically once a Catholic always a Catholic. That’s why you can’t de-register in the way you have written about.
You could ask for your baptism to be struck from your parish records. But that would not mean that your baptism had not happened. Only that the record of it was no longer there.
As for the matter of consent - that you mention - if you look at Catholic teaching it explains why infant baptism is so important. Also as part of their marriage prep and Wedding vows part of that it to be open to children and to bring them up as Catholics so being baptized is part and parcel of that commitment.
Hope this helps explain a bit

You can in the Mormon church.

Have a look on Count Me Out website, and look up the Declaration of Defection.
There used to be in the Code of Canon Law, a section that allowed withdrawal of your name to happen, at least in some countries, but I believe this has since been scrapped.

BTW before people start, the Satanic Temple is not devil worshipping. They don't even believe in the devil, its an Atheist group that use symbolism to fight against religious dogma and try and stop religion and state/politics being in unison.
It's a much bigger franchise in the USA where seperation of church and state is becoming increasingly blurred.

I wonder if picking a different name would have helped with their goal. It seems needlessly controversial; but even aside from that, it’s an interesting choice to call yourself a “Satanic Temple” whilst trying to fight against religion. Their symbolism seems to feed right in to what they wish to stop.

The Catholic Church is rather like the Hotel California - you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. Would you settle for being a bad Catholic? That's easier.

RepeatAdNauseum

What they are doing is actually quite clever.

When things like the 10 commandments have been put up outside public buildings it has proved very difficult to have them removed.

So instead the Satanic Church campaigns to have their 'symbols' or statues along side the Christian one eg a baphomet or similar.

Mumuinabun and how have these lovely people reacted to the shocking infiltration of their wonderful organization by evil people who abuse children? And how about the other evil people in their organization who got rid of newborns and unwed mothers over in Ireland? Or the ones that institutionally have amassed one of the world’s greatest fortunes in the Vatican while millions starve to death? And that’s leaving the sexism and homophobia to one side.

Thank you toddler I was very unaware of that

I don't think baptismal records are erased in any church
just like a divorce ends a marriage but the original marriage record will not be destroyed or erased, it will always be on record that A married B on date X,

personally for accuracy of historical information I do not think it should be possible to alter any historical record anywhere even with GRA the original birth certificate should never be removed officially even it is removed from public searches

If you want people to remember then why are you trying to erase the past? There is a historical record somewhere that you were baptised. That's a true fact.

Without wishing to be glib, OP, I'm sure you've put your name down for companies, bought products from inadvertently supported many private organisations that also have a hand in all the same pies.

I can understand an anger but if you renounce the religion in your own mind and think it's nonsense- why do you need their permission to be separate from it? Just live your life in a way that reflects a morality you agree with and move on from it. Write to them if it helps you but I doubt anyone will in all honesty, be particularly interested and I can't imagine they have any of your details anyway, a name in a long forgotten book? Change your name?

Nonsense, @Serenschintte. Baptism etc is only indelible if you actually believe in that stuff. From the OP’s point of view a deluded person poured water on her when she was a baby.

OP, you’re not included in any stats as a Catholic, unless you tick that box on a census. Within Catholicism, ‘numbers’ are arrived at by reports from parishes etc, so if you’re not attending Mass or otherwise involved in a parish/diocese, you’re not a number.

I know someone who got his name removed as a member of the Mormons. Took him about a year and he had to write scads of letters and responses to their letters reiterating his position 'up the chain of command' but he finally got a letter that he'd been excommunicated*. I think it was because his last few letters contained quite a few 'fucks' and 'fuckings'.

*I don't know if 'excommunicated' is the right word for Mormons, but at any rate he was told he was no longer a Mormon.

For the church I was raised in, all you had to do was call the church and tell them to take you off the membership rolls. The pastor would give you a little bit of shit, but they wouldn't refuse to do it.

You count consent to being baptised, why should it be on your record forever?