Has Anyone Successfully Left the Catholic Church?

[Mercurial123]

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

It mattered to no one but himself. I think he was a bit miffed they didn´t kick up a fuss. The rest of people I know just stop going to church and that´s it. No one gives a damn.

Of course they do in theory. I mean, they're not going to get nasty with the person, that'd be counterproductive and wouldn't get them anywhere. And they don't have a massive emphasis on laying it on heavy with people, evangelism etc. But my Priest, his dad isn't Catholic and he's sad about that.

So they turn up unnanounced at the homes of people who are no longer Catholic and try to pressure them into going back?

@LostParadise Well, hopefully not pressure them but encourage them. Apparently it doesn't work all that often.

There are people that become inactive for a while but then come back to it under their own steam (maybe in times of stress etc.)

I never knew, when I was a kid it was always reckoned to be CofE Vicars with the choirboys.

The big scandal I remember was when the nuns were raped in the Congo and I heard my gran talking to my aunts about them having abortions. I was a kid but I was upset as the nuns who taught me were from an order that had schools in the Congo and we used to get letters from them. I don't know if they were the nuns talked about but I sort of felt like I knew them so it was upsetting.

@Iwasafool

the nuns had abortions?

@ Swiss poster

and what’s a Christ Catholic? How is it different to Roman Catholic?

I'm Catholic. I think engaging in pointless paperwork is letting the church have too much space in your head.

Not being funny but there’s a door out of the church, you go out of it and never go back in again.
not catholic but done that with C of E after covid.

You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.

@blueshoes

Yes, Henry VIII.

😂

😂No such thing as baptised Catholic! Just baptism . No discriminating criteria. I guess Confirmation would-be the Sacrament that " makes" you Catholic as you are joining the Church . Never knew they took names ,😁👀

It's not a cult! Just leave and don't come back!

And...?

When my child was baptized it was made clear to me they were being baptized as a Christian not as a Catholic or Anglican.
The further rituals such as confirmation or communication are when a child is making a commitment to a particular church.

I think I get it OP. You want them to notice that you feel deeply about this, and you'd like to receive more than a glib "no one cares, just stop going" response. You'd hope that people would care a little and wonder why, especially if you had some meaningful church connections.

The thing is that people are weird about others who leave organisations. There's something about group mentalities and dynamics. I don't know why it is, but there's often a "don't let the door hit you on your way out!" mentality instead of "what's the real problem" one.

I agree it is a complex issue as with my reference to some countries where there is the death penalty if you leave that religino (for apostacy). In the FLDS (polygamous fundamentalist mormons in the US) they regard apostates (those who leave) as much worse than people who were never in the religion and the shunning of those who leave by Amish, Jehovah's witnesses, those in Gloriavale in NZ and many other groups and the Scientologist cult is very difficult.

So the issue is certainly a big one although I don't think Catholicism is particularly top of the list in treatment of those who leave or want to leave. They will not be setting up a central register of who is a member and who leaves and remove someone from current membership but it would just be too big a task.

On baptism for those marrying in a Catholic church where one person is not Catholic they do want to see the baptism certificate such as from the C of E - eg my father was C of E and my mother Catholic. The Christian baptism is recognised in that sense. Although they will of course marry a Catholic in church who is not marrying a Christian.

The mainstearm mormon church (LDS) baptises dead people of all ages, even back to the 1600s which is why their family history records are such a wonderful free source of information and they have some of the best records. I have no problems with hat as it just does not count or have an effect (as I am not LDS) but some people do and they have stopped doing it for some groups who objected. If you don't believe in some other religions I don't personally have a problem with 10 different religions conferring blessings on you - bring them on, the more the better.

Exactly.

The Church will be wrong whatever it does.

If it gives people the right of self-determination it's accused of not caring.

On the other hand if it were to contact people try and encourage them to return, then it's accused of 'indoctrination', 'interfering in peoples' lives', brainwashing' 'controlling'etc etc

Exactly - and one of the reasons organised religion is so wrong.

Why?

I's not a cult as the pp poster said.

It's not like Islam, where, in Muslim States, the punishment for Apostasy is death.

It is being damned if it does and if it doesn't. You can leave by not going but there is not a central database from which you are removed - that does not exist and given there are about 1.3 billion Catholics of 8bn people on the planet they will not be setting one up.

If it were a group where you have to tithe 10% of your income to the church as in some grops or pay to register each year for membership or the made it hard to leave that in my view would make it more of a problem.

I suppose someone who was bothered could set up their own datbase and allow ex Catholics who chose to have a public withdrawal to be registered on it in private or public to signify a formal leaving.

My father who had to be confirmed in the C of E in the 1940s to go to Durham university (the Bishop of Durham baptised him) started going to church again in his 70s and said the church missed a trick in gong after young families as instead older people with lots of time and spare money might be a better targe audience (he did sometimes go to Catholic mass with us as children occasionally. My point here is plenty of people dip in and out of the C of E and Catholicism across an 80 year life so if we started having official records of "leavers" it would be a lot of paperwork and then they might go back to the religion later anyway.