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Original poster

Has Anyone Successfully Left the Catholic Church?

161 replies

Mercurial123 · 03/08/2023 13:11

Has anyone formally left the Catholic Church and if so how easy/difficult was it? And how did you feel afterwards?

It's something I've been thinking about for a long time. My friends who were baptised Catholic but are now atheist looked a bit shocked, probably because no-one has ever considered it.

This is from a US site, but the procedure be the same in the UK?

www.buzzfeednews.com/article/expresident/how-to-leave-the-catholic-church

OP posts:
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Original poster
Mercurial123 · 03/08/2023 16:23

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

No, I'm perfectly rational, thanks. Am I unhinged? There must be quite a few of us if defection was stopped in 2006.

OP posts:
HelloHellebore · 03/08/2023 16:23

I know of several people in Germany who have formally left the catholic church. In Germany there is a “church tax” which is collected along with normal income tax and passed onto the church. In order to stop paying the church tax, you have to leave the church.
Only in german:

Kirchensteuer (Deutschland) – Wikipedia

https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchensteuer_(Deutschland)

Saoirse82 · 03/08/2023 16:30

Nearly the whole of Ireland has left the Catholic Church (the younger generation anyway). We just don't go, well only for hatches, matches and dispatches. You don't need to do anything else.

Original poster
Mercurial123 · 03/08/2023 16:30

HelloHellebore · 03/08/2023 16:23

I know of several people in Germany who have formally left the catholic church. In Germany there is a “church tax” which is collected along with normal income tax and passed onto the church. In order to stop paying the church tax, you have to leave the church.
Only in german:

Interesting. That's German efficiency for you.

OP posts:
Saoirse82 · 03/08/2023 16:33

Just read your updates. I understand why you'd want to formally leave. The Catholic Church have been involved in some real nasty stuff.

babysharkdoodoodedoodedoo · 03/08/2023 16:40

This is really unnecessary and feels a bit melodramatic and a big where no big deal is needed. Just don’t go anymore. It doesn’t need to be a big song and dance.

FreeRider · 03/08/2023 17:00

@Spidey66 Much the same for me...Irish Catholic mother, dragged all 3 of us to Mass every Sat Eve/Sunday. As long as we were in the family home we were forced to go, otherwise she made our lives hell. I stupidly got married at just 21 (mainly to get away from parents) in the church ... which was literally across the road from our house! Nothing like parental emotional blackmail...turned out parents were complete and utter hypocrites, as I found out when I got back from honeymoon and my father had run off with another woman! Turned out my 'good Catholic' mother had been living with my father for 6 months before they married...and was also 2 months pregnant when they did!

Never gone to Mass since, doubt either of my 2 brothers have either. None of us have had children, either...and I apparently was excommunicated back in 1994 when I had my first termination!

You learn something new every day!

Hannahsbananas · 03/08/2023 17:03

Mercurial123 · 03/08/2023 13:14

That's not what I'm asking. I want to formally leave.

Show quote history

Why the need for a formal flounce?

It really doesn’t matter to anyone but you.
You’re massively overthinking this.

PastTheGin · 03/08/2023 17:10

I was just about to mention Germany, @HelloHellebore ! I officially left the Catholic Church by stopping paying church tax. All I had to do was fill in a form.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 03/08/2023 17:16

Here you go, OP - it's larded with Latin and gets in a dig about you "putting your soul in grave eternal danger", but unless it's been superseded this seems to cover the basics

And massive respect to you for choosing to leave an institution that's enabled so much evil

https://www.catholicbridge.com/catholic/how-to-stop-being-catholic.php

gogomoto · 03/08/2023 17:20

It's as simple as stopping going.

More formally deregister from your congregation. I'm not 100% of the frequency in the Catholic Church but in the Anglican Church we do our counts every 3 years, if you don't fill in a form you are removed from the electoral roll so are no longer a member of that church, you can request to be removed sooner. Finally stop ticking Catholic on forms like the census

Boomboom22 · 03/08/2023 17:21

I guess it depends, if there is a record of the number baptised which is used to back up arguments then you should be able to be removed surely? Like you can leave a political party. If not then it doesn't matter.

Iwasafool · 03/08/2023 17:32

Boomboom22 · 03/08/2023 17:21

I guess it depends, if there is a record of the number baptised which is used to back up arguments then you should be able to be removed surely? Like you can leave a political party. If not then it doesn't matter.

How would they know if you are still alive? People die, my husband hasn't been to church for 60 years, he was Baptised but how would they know if he's alive or dead.

The Baptismal Register is a historical record, you can't say it didn't happen if it did.

Jackandjillswell · 03/08/2023 17:49

I left the Catholic Church last Sunday at precisely 11.30.am. I went out of the side door, and then round the corner to the church hall for coffee and a biscuit.
It was simple and quite painless.
You can try it OP, it doesn't hurt. 😂

LlynTegid · 03/08/2023 17:51

Surely if you were to be received or admitted into another church or another faith, effectively you would have left?

Or as others have said, you just stop going.

Donotunderestimateme · 03/08/2023 20:31

I’m sure the census option (in U.K. in 2021) just says Christian. It does not differentiate between the denominations

Barrell · 03/08/2023 20:34

Why does it require the big performance? Just stop going to church and if anyone asks if you’re Catholic, say no.

Hannahsbananas · 03/08/2023 20:40

Op is so intent on going with a bang, not a whimper; but honestly no one will notice or particularly care.

UnicornStarfish · 03/08/2023 23:55

HelloHellebore · 03/08/2023 16:23

I know of several people in Germany who have formally left the catholic church. In Germany there is a “church tax” which is collected along with normal income tax and passed onto the church. In order to stop paying the church tax, you have to leave the church.
Only in german:

Get out of here! Shut the front door! What have I just read?!?! 😱😮Wooooow, the things I learn on MN! I can't belive what I've just read! Well, it's on wikipedia so it must true but honestly, jokes aside, I can't believe Germany has something like this. If you said this happens somewhere in Latin America or Africa I'd believe it without any issues but Germany?!?! Bloody heck! I can't believe this happens in a place like Germany. This doesn't even happen in Italy!
All of sudden it kind of makes sense how yeeears ago a Bishop (or a Cardinal?) in Germany got kicked in the behind for having gold taps and living in opulence in a very fancy schmancy mansion. Now I see where the money came from.
This sounds a lot like greed to me, one of them mortal sins!

romdowa · 03/08/2023 23:58

You used to be able to leave formally as I know someone who has done it but I think they changed it during Vatican 2

LeonardCohensRaincoat · 04/08/2023 09:57

@UnicornStarfish

all recognised faiths in Germany have the tax, not just RCC. My German friend who is Lutheran opted out by filling in a govt form- just in case this gets latched on to as another thing to throw at only Catholics.

It was clergy in Munich, I think, where the RCC dominates and is a wealthy part of Germany. Not that it makes right, of course.

KimberleyClark · 04/08/2023 10:02

I thought that the only way to really leave the Catholic Church was to be excommunicated. Once baptised Catholic,always a Catholic, even if you never go again?

OchonAgusOchonOh · 04/08/2023 11:34

KimberleyClark · 04/08/2023 10:02

I thought that the only way to really leave the Catholic Church was to be excommunicated. Once baptised Catholic,always a Catholic, even if you never go again?

Excommunication doesn't get you out. You're just not allowed to receive sacraments until you repent.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 04/08/2023 11:42

Note that punching the Pope and procuring an abortion are up there (with reasons for excommunication) ... but not murder or rape

Nor abusing a child either ...

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