Religion

LegacyUser

Reglion is causing me such problems at home. They are all catholics. I dont want to be one any more.

Its ruining my life. I wish I was allowed to make my own choice.

Can I get my self de-catholicised? How do you go about doing this? This is serious and I am not being a muppet.

BeatTun

just stop going to mass

azezil

Originally posted by Unregistered
Reglion is causing me such problems at home. They are all catholics. I dont want to be one any more.

How old are you? once you're over 18 you can pritty much do as you like (within the confinds of the law of course )

Its ruining my life. I wish I was allowed to make my own choice.

In what way is it ruining you life?

You are allowed choose

Can I get my self de-catholicised? How do you go about doing this? This is serious and I am not being a muppet.

I have no idea! but as already said just don't practice the religion.

koneko

As far as I know you can go to the state, or town hall, or whatever, and have yourself listed as whatever you want. Buddhist, Catholic, Agnostic, Athiest, Wiccan, whatever.

If your family are causing problems for you because of religion, they need to cop on. If they love you, and care about you, it won't matter if you choose to participate in their God-rituals or not. It's your life, not theirs.

What kind of problems are they causing? What's happening?

Shiminay

I know how you feel. My mother is a Church Musician - she's the assistant organist in Knock Shrine, she plays and sings at all the Funerals in Castlebar and plays mass every Sunday in our local church (as well as weddings, novenas, lent masses etc...

Basically, she's well into it!

When I eventually told her I wasn't going to mass anymore as I didn't believe in God, she flipped out but I stuck to my guns, remained calm and told her that it was pointless in my going to mass as it meant nothing to me and that according to her bible, this is what the folks who had Jesus killed did - believe and then disbelieve at free will. Not good.

Stick with it, talk it over with the family. I've had more than a few roaring matches with my mother over it and every time I've come out of it safe in the knowledge that I was in the right and that her insistence that I was "only looking for notice" was one of the most disrespectful things anyone can say to another. Even her just as religious God-cured-my-cancer (she had serious cancer 10-12 years ago) sister agreed with me after seeing me scream my mother down, nose to nose (I'm 8 or 9 inches taller than my mother, so it would have been a pretty funny sight).

I know how bad that sounds, but it's not a problem any more - it's just a shame my Mum had to be so thick headed about it.

bucks73

If you dont want to be Catholic just stop practicing by not going to mass or praying.

I havent been to a Sunday mass in about 10 years. Only reason to go to church has been weddings or funerals.

Saruman

eh this thread has me lost... whats going on? I dont think there is an official religion thingy on your birth cert and if there is there should not be! Anyway if you dont want to be catholic any more then dont be.. if you want to be something else go to their services and not mass on sunday... your family is absolutly not important in this matter!

Saruman

oh here is a thought... try and get yourself excommunicated.. send the pope a load of spam emails or something.. that should do it

Ruaidhri

just say i dont beLIEve in all that crap...as far as i can tell, you can only call yourself a non-practising catholic(unless you get initiated into another religon/cult)

Victor

Originally posted by Unregistered
Can I get my self de-catholicised

Officially the only way to leave the catholic church is to be excommunicated. In practice, most people just stop practising.

On the flip side, your at risk of kissing goodbye to a church wedding (may not be important to your now, but may be important to your partner in the future).

Manach

My 2 pence.
Personally I don?t agree but it is entirely your choice. My advise however would be to calmly and rationally explain your decision, again & again & again. For some believers equate lack-of belief with lack of ethics. (having read posting from boards I know this is not so). Express that you are still the same person, with the same good set of values who simply chooses to express himself another way. Do not get angry, it simply reinenforces the other party?s assumption that you are doing this to punish them for something they did.
Good luck.

BeatTun

i know your religion is whatever you were baptised as....

but i view it as a state of mind, a belief.

and if u dont believe in it, then its not your religion is it?

just go with whatever it is you believe in, if anything.

koneko

I know in some European countries you're registered with the state with the religion you're baptised in. One of my friends in Germany went up to the town hall/registry and had her details changed to Athiest.

Saruman

BeatTun that would be my thought too! You are what you believe.. i mean i know catholics who have never stepped foot inside a church with the possible exception of baptism.. they dont believe in God yet they are considered and consider themselves catholics.. there is something a little odd about this!

Xterminator

This might sound mad, but if youre having problems at home with your family because of religion, you might consider having a chat with a local priest.

See if he's sympatetic to you problem, ie you want the right to choose your direction in life. If so, why not invite him around to the house?

A lot of people have period in the life where they question things.

If you are forced to do something you dont agree with, then you will hate it, and be predujiced against it for life!

The priest will likely take this line with your parents/siblings etc, that forcing you would be counter productive , and they should back off, and allow you space.

I imagine this is what you want, and if they wont listen to you, they should listen to the local priest.

X

Saruman

Interesting advice Xterminator... he is trying to get out of the religion but in order to do that he should invite a representative of that religion around? hmmm well if it works i suppose.. would be more fun though if he is trying to change religions.. invite the priest of both religions around.. that could be fun!

Victor

Originally posted by koneko
I know in some European countries you're registered with the state with the religion you're baptised in. One of my friends in Germany went up to the town hall/registry and had her details changed to Athiest.

This is so religious taxes can be distributed (and collected) fairly. The problem with not paying your religious taxes is you can't avail of church services (e.g. no church wedding).

seamus

As some have said, if you don't want to be Catholic, then don't be! Afaik, there is no law that means you must state a religion, so simply denounce it. I was baptised catholic, but that doesn't make me so. As far as I care, some dude poured water on my head when I was a kid, after all, if I don't believe in what the catholic church is doing, then my baptism means nothing.

Your parents will think it's a 'phase' you're going through (like some people here on boards have said), so let them believe it. If they're really annoying you, try not to be there when they're going to mass, and walk out of the room or laugh when they ask you if you went to mass. Don't pretend you are going, it's more hassle than it's worth. (A friend of mine spent an hour, in an alleyway, in the pissings of rain one day. Personally I'd prefer to be sleeping in a warm dry church for that hour )

LegacyUser

Thanks for your suggestions.

The real problem is that they baptised me against my will and I wish to have this reversed. The catholic church have a record of me which is what I resent more than anything.

They must be a way to get oneself off their books. I dont care about church weddings, I am divorced so they woudnt let me in anyway.

You guys must think I am mad but i have very strong feelings on this.

Saruman

Dont know.. Sinead Oconoor burnt a picture of the pope and then they go and make her a priest or something...

Does the church keep a record of people they baptise?

azezil

thread reopened

Saruman

If you want to be officially something else.. put it down on the census form.. stick down Jedi Knight if you like

bombidol

Think of your baptisim as a backup policy if you die and realise you are in heaven or whatever at least you can say Crap it was real all along and you have your foot in the door.
Personnally i wouldnt even give it a second thought, going back to them to have it reversed show that you need them for something, that they deserved some kind of respect when they dont at all, they deserve to be ignored and shunned.
Preists were generally lonely children, i think they should have became scouts instead.

bomb

Cabaal

Well I was baptised and all that, but for the last eight years I ain't gone to mass and had to fight like hell for the right not to go to the school masses and not to go to religion classes when I was in school, parents respect my belief in no religion and I put No on the census under the religion section.

Thing is, used to bug me, Catholics are supposed to respect people's views/beliefs/thoughts/right to choose?.

Seems to me, I have no belief but yet I respect everyone else's without any trouble as long as they don't try force there belief on me.
I don't care if people worship rocks or something if its what they need in their life, fair juice to them if it does the job for them.

banquo

I've checked around, there is NO way you can stop being a catholic without joing antother religion. I suppose you coul get ex-communicated by registering the pope with a gay-newsletter or something, but I don't imagine your family would be thrilled to revieve a letter from in the post from the pope saying "please tell your son to shag off and die in a hole somewhere. yours sincerely, Pope." Do what I did, just stop practicing.

francie brady

Originally posted by Unregistered
Reglion is causing me such problems at home. They are all catholics. I dont want to be one any more.

Its ruining my life. I wish I was allowed to make my own choice.

Can I get my self de-catholicised? How do you go about doing this? This is serious and I am not being a muppet.

The way i see it is as follows

Society has made man, religion has made society, therefore religion was made man. And as we all know it is impossible for anything to escape our makers. As Irish we rejoiced at our fight for freedom against the british. But we still allowed ourselves to be colonised by the Roman Catholic Church. I wish we could win but like i said it's impossible to escape our makers.

No doubt i'll be laughed at and told to f**k off and banned for giving my point of view. Hello Corinthian

LegacyUser

OOOOOOH!!
At least somebody on this list has read their Foucault. I agree entirely. On the one hand the Irish need to reassess their ideologies of freedom. Ireland was colonised by the Roman Church centuries before the Elizabethan conquests of the late 1590s. The English too were colonised about the same time but gained freedom by drawing up their own rules and calling it English Protestantism. Whilst the Irish have cause to celebrate their freedom from British Rule, they achieved their freedom under the banner of Catholicism. Escape from one tyranny left us in the depths of another more powerful oppresser.

Meanwhile, as Foucault did point out, man is the product of society. It is impossible to escape the rules society has set down for us. Even by acting immorally we are acting immorally according to social immorality. Like Francie Brady pointed out, Irish society is built under the guise of Roman Catholicism. Therefore, alas my friend, you cannot escape religion.

Nìamh.

The Corinthian

Originally posted by francie brady
No doubt i'll be laughed at and told to f**k off and banned for giving my point of view. Hello Corinthian

No, I don't disagree with you.

smalltalker

Originally posted by Unregistered
The real problem is that they baptised me against my will and I wish to have this reversed. The catholic church have a record of me which is what I resent more than anything.

I was baptised against my will as well of course - I was only a baby.

Most people (including myself) stopped going to mass, etc. out of indifference more than anything else.

You don't seem indifferent - anything but.

I think the earlier suggestion to speak with a priest is, in this instance, probably a good idea. Have you spoken to those who baptised you against your will? Who do you resent more - them or the Church? That is a hard question, I know, but it seems to be at the root of your problem.
I hope things work out for you.

Our man in Havana

if you are baptised aginst your will, is that not a breach of your consitutional rights.

Surely the catholics must remove your name from their list if you no onger wish to worship them.

Found this link

http://infoweb.magi.com/~godfree/excom.html

Interresting reading:)

Chaos-Engine

Attention:Talk to your local priest about being excommunicated from the Catholic church...
I did it. Its very easy.

Anyway it will be easier for you as you are divorced...
Thats against the teahcings that is .