Comments on: Getting De-Baptized (For Real)

By: David

David — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:57:21 +0000

I was baptised as an infant in the RC church. Now I believe Baptism should be for adults who understand the significance of it and freely choose to do so, not just as a ritual or joining a religious denomination. Then the matter of de-baptising would not be an issue.

By: Will

Will — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:46:04 +0000

It would also be mildly annoying if the CC uses the fact that I did not make leaving the church official as a way to promote me as a member. In other words, statistically, there may be many “members” of the Catholic Church who have left the church, but are still recorded members, thereby making it seem like there are more members than there really are.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:57:41 +0000

Yeah, I think the real problem is that the baptisms have any legal ramifications at all.

Yeah — hard to believe it’s the 21st century sometimes.

By: SarahH

SarahH — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:51:59 +0000

Yeah, I think the real problem is that the baptisms have any legal ramifications at all.

By: Flavio

Flavio — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:20:36 +0000

I can understand why American people are a bit skeptical about the whole debaptism thing. The problem is that Italy, though secular by constitution, has always granted many priviledges to the catholic church and abides canon law in many ways, for instance on catholic marriage and marriage annulment. Please refer to UAAR's website (sorry for the Google translation!) for further info.

By: UAAR Ultimissime » Archivio » Disinformazione cristiana sull’UAAR e lo sbattezzo

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:05:46 +0000

[...] per contro anche il bel post che ha dedicato alla vicenda Friendly Atheist, probabilmente il più noto blog ateo del mondo. Notizie correlateNuovo sul sito UAAR: passaparola [...]

By: Lynn

Lynn — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:07:42 +0000

Actually, I don’t think you can get “debaptized”. You can officially leave the Church via formal letter if you so wish (I did it, but only as a personal statement for myself — I also drowned all my religious paraphernalia, including the creepy “relics” my great aunt left me, in the Atlantic), but I don’t think that makes you “unbaptized” in the Church’s view. Just makes you not officially Catholic, although in the US it hardly matters whether or not you make an official statement to the Church. Just don’t go to Mass and don’t give them money — the latter being the only statement they’re really interested in, anyway.

By: Epistaxis

Epistaxis — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:01:45 +0000

Hey, they have Ho venduto l’anima su E-bay in their biblioteca.

By: Scott G.

Scott G. — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:15:12 +0000

I was going to state something along the lines of: Why bother? Becoming debaptized is like trying to undo the spell a witch put on you when you were a child – a symbolic, but otherwise useless task. It means nothing to you at this point, since you don’t believe in it anyway, and it can only offend others (although that may be the point).

However, I do agree that if you live in a place where the church can actually exert legal influence on your life based on your supposed affiliation with them, opting out is a good step.

I still think being debaptized is silly, though; a good lawyer (like the one ubi dubious mentioned above) should be able to draw up the appropriate papers to remove yourself from the church’s sphere of control.

By: ubi dubius

ubi dubius — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:05:49 +0000

“Undo Says:

September 2nd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Kinda stupid if you ask me. It’s not like it does anything real anyway. It just a silly superstition.”

Undo: It is a superstition, but in Italy and some other countries, it has legal effect. For example, in some countries, church courts handle marriage, divorce, inheritance, and even minor crimes. Being clear about whether church courts have jurisdiction over you can be very important.

BTW: I have an attorney colleague whose practice includes a good deal of Catholic Canon Law.