Do I need to fill out a form?

Asiaprod

Schuhart wrote:

so if some arm of it gives you a piece of paper to confirm that your damnation is assured, how does it have any more meaning than the piece of paper they would have given you to prove you had a seat booked in paradise?

I think you are missing the point. The point is they would give it to you thereby accepting that you officially want to have nothing to do with them and that you can no longer be included in any of their statistics or can no longer accept that they have any power to intervene in any civil laws that effect your life. Heaven and hell have nothing to do with it.

Schuhart

I do feel the more I think about this, the more its a non-issue. So why am I still posting about it? I suppose because I reckon pursuit of wild fancy is a theist thing.

Its not as if the Church pursues us after we've left, or sends us junk mail offering us pocket calculators if we resubscribe. People leaving Islam might have more of an issue in principle, to the extent that strictly speaking in their setup you should be put to death for apostasy. But if you leave Roman Catholicism its pretty much a case of saying 'so long and thanks for all the ritualised cannibalism', with them responding 'well, we'll keep you on the books in case you change your mind.'

I'm probably bordering on being pedantic, but I found the points you made didn't really convince me that the idea had any content. (in fairness, I know you were probably just quickly jotting down a few things that a 'certificate' might do)

Asiaprod wrote:

The point is they would give it to you thereby accepting that you officially want to have nothing to do with them

But the most they can do is acknowledge that I've written to them saying I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. They have no knowledge, skill or expertise that puts them in a better situation than me in judging the extent to which I want nothing to do with them. If I write a note to self saying 'I'm never going back again', it has far more meaning because at least I have some clue about how I feel.

Asiaprod wrote:

and that you can no longer be included in any of their statistics

In this jurisdiction, the census is surely the basis on which we count who belongs to what faith or none, so this seems a pure irrelevance. The only statistics you would expect the Church to have would be the number of babies they baptise and the numbers of people attending mass. There is no reason to reduce the first figure if I leave - its simply a fact I was baptised. I won't feature in Church attendance stats. So there's really no problem.

Asiaprod wrote:

or can no longer accept that they have any power to intervene in any civil laws that effect your life.

In other jurisdictions I understand that a portion of your tax will go to whatever is deemed to be your religion. Here, we don't. I'm not clear what civil power the Church exercises over me here.

marius

As far as I am aware in order to be 'officially' removed from the catholic church you have to be excommunicated. You can ask to be excommunicated (by writing to the local cardinal or something).

I would like to do it myself but im just too lazy, it really does not bother me that much. The main reason I would like to do it is so that christians are forced to stop quoting the crazy 2 Billion worshippers world wide.....kinda annoys me......

maitri

marius wrote:

As far as I am aware in order to be 'officially' removed from the catholic church you have to be excommunicated. You can ask to be excommunicated (by writing to the local cardinal or something).

You just have to write two lines to your local parish priest to ask him to remove you from their lists, because you are not a believer or whatever your reasons are.

In my case, it turned up that I – because of some mistake – had actually never been on the list. So the good pater wrote me in and out again to “get it right”. And I got a nice certificate that I am no longer a catholic. (But my mother says that I still am no matter what say the lists or certificate, because you can never stop being a Catholic. Well, well, I don’t care so much… But I am happy that I don’t have to defend the new Pope.) My old catholic friends have all been very nice and respect my choice.