Catholic defection group ,Count Me Out , Suspends service.
national |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report
Wednesday October 13, 2010 14:41
by Kevin Flanagan
Count Me Out , which had simplified the process for Catholics who wished to formally leave the Church, has suspended its service. This follows the Church’s modification of the Code of Canon Law in April this year which removed all references to the act of formal defection, the process used by those who wish to formally renounce their membership of the Church.
Anybody baptised as a Catholic is still counted among the congregation of the church - regardless of what beliefs they currently hold - until they complete a formal declaration of defection’’ from the Catholic Church
CountMeOut was set up last July, following publication of the Ryan report . Its website provided a simple three step internet procedure for Church defectees .and within a month over 2,000 people had completed declarations of defection.
According to the notice on its website Count Me Out has been contacted by increasing numbers of people whose defections have not been processed, due to the limbo created by the canon law amendment. Despite Count Me Out’s requests for clarification , the Church has yet to reach a firm position on how or whether they will continue to accept requests for the annotation of the baptismal register .
The Church issued the following statement to the media on the matter.
“The Holy See confirmed at the end of August that it was introducing changes to Canon Law and as a result it will no longer be possible to formally defect from the Catholic Church. This will not alter the fact that many people can defect from the Church, and continue to do so, albeit not through a formal process. This is a change that will affect the Church throughout the world. The Archdiocese of Dublin plans to maintain a register to note the expressed desire of those who wish to defect. Details will be communicated to those involved in the process when they are finalised. Last year 229 people formally defected from the Church through the Archdiocese of Dublin. 312 have done so, so far this year.”
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Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7If this matter isn't sorted out quickly by the catholic church I intend to hand in notice of defection to archbishop personally at midnight mass this Christmas.
Maybe you should throw a bucket of water over him and tell him he can have his fucking baptism back?For all the abused kids they continue to betray by living in luxury while their victims, those that didn't self-destruct years ago, stagger from one depleted public service to the next.
Not many priests in the A&E looking for psychiatric support.
After the suspension of the formal act of Defection by the Catholic Church, Paul Dunbar co-founder of countmeout has said they will start campaigning to get people to think about the religion question in the forthcoming census 2011,
Paul said "Catholicism for Irish people is like their blood type, or their ethnic group and it's kind of like they think "oh yeah I'm catholic, I still had sex with my partner last night, I'm not married but I'm still catholic or I used contraception, I'm still catholic" it's almost subconscious when they get the census it's like blood type B, religion catholic."
Many people criticized countmeout, saying it doesn't matter what the church count as their number, the state only looks at the census figures and the religious numbers their in, so what matters is what's in the census.
Paul said if the number of Catholics decreases in a significant way in the next census, it would send the message that the number of schools under catholic patronage is over represented, also in the health service. There would be more weight behind the aurgument that you remove some of this power from the church to be involved in health and education.
Paul went on to say even if you’re still officially a member you can still count yourself out as being recognised as a member in the census. Countmeout what to reach those people who might automatically put down catholic, because they think once a catholic always a catholic and try to get them to reflect on that and put down the truth.
Caption: Video Id: wn-hEXJI2lI Type: Youtube Video
Future for CountMeOut after suspension
..that most religious loyalty stems from an aversion to upsetting the mammy. Mother church, the patriarchal hermaphrodite that eats its own children.
I am making a radio doc on church defection as I believe freedom of religion is very important.
I would like to speak with someone who has attempted to formally defect and now finds they can't. I am also interviewing countmeout.ie and a member of the catholic church, all seperately and I would like to meet those genuinely angered by this for an open-minded interview.
I can only select one or two people however but please contact me on my email. Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you
That email address you gave doesn't seem to be working . We tried swapping the at for @ and the various dots with the symbol . without success.
I will do an interview with you if you like. My mobile phone number is 087 269 2524 .. I'll send you my landline number if you want to make contact for a fuller interview.
As I wrote earlier on the thread , I haven't been able to register my own disaffiliation from the Catholic Church yet because of the suspension , but I will be delivering a letter of disaffiliation personally to the archbishop at midnight mass this year if necessary.
This law is disgusting as now the catholic church have a permanent hold on you. I want to defect because I have never been to church but was baptized, made my communion and confirmation, WHEN I WAS A CHILD AND DIDN'T KNOW ANY BETTER. It's ridiculous and so typical of the Church.
Please sign my petition on Change.org about changing this law!