So you really cannot leave the Catholic church - WTF?!?!?!!

[beige]

By insisting to have her name removed from the baptism rosters, she is still is recognizing church authority in another way...

Yes. If you submit yourself to their bureaucracy you are at some level acknowledging their authority and that they have to do something in order to validate you being an official nonbeliever (ex-Catholic).

Just walk away and never look back - that's the ultimate repudiation of their hold on you.


So glad I wasn't raised with any religion!

I know I wouldn't want my name on their little list.

Every time they started playing power games, I'd be another number of their list of "supporters", and I know I'd feel guilty being part of that particular power base.

[Bella Fortuna]

By insisting to have her name removed from the baptism rosters, she is still is recognizing church authority in another way...

Yes. If you submit yourself to their bureaucracy you are at some level acknowledging their authority and that they have to do something in order to validate you being an official nonbeliever (ex-Catholic).

Just walk away and never look back - that's the ultimate repudiation of their hold on you.


So glad I wasn't raised with any religion!

I know I wouldn't want my name on their little list.

Every time they started playing power games, I'd be another number of their list of "supporters", and I know I'd feel guilty being part of that particular power base.

Yeah, it's bad enough if you ever give money to public TV! You NEVER get off their fundraiser list!

[Animavore]

That reminds me... I still haven't sent that form.

If there was a god he would make it get lost in the post anyway.

I think he's cursed me with laziness. I filled it in about a year ago.

[leo-rcc]

As far as I know, you can leave - it involves sending a letter to the diocese where you were entered into the Church, then you have a pleading letter back from the priest there begging you not to leave, then you send another saying that you're quite happy to burn in hell, then they strike you from the list and stop counting you as one of their power base.

I've been taken of the list about 8 years ago. I did get a letter asking for a pastor to visit and talk it over and I declined and said I'm very sure about it. I was then sent a letter confirming my name is stricken from the record.

[Animavore]

In Ireland you get a letter off the Bishop and you have to go visit him in his mansion and he'll try talk you out of it.

[beige]

In Ireland you get a letter off the Bishop and you have to go visit him in his mansion and he'll try talk you out of it.

As I understand it, you don't HAVE to go see them, you just have to respond to their invitation

[kiki5711]

what's the big deal if they keep your name in their records? does it affect your life somehow? just sayin?

[Animavore]

what's the big deal if they keep your name in their records? does it affect your life somehow? just sayin?

It means that people can't go against your wishes and give you a Catholic burial, and it also means that when the Catholic church can't talk about representing all of Ireland any more.

[kiki5711]

what's the big deal if they keep your name in their records? does it affect your life somehow? just sayin?

It means that people can't go against your wishes and give you a Catholic burial, and it also means that when the Catholic church can't talk about representing all of Ireland any more.

ok, I see. But isn't it in your "will" how you desire to be "disposed"?
Does the church have legal power to burie you the way they want over what you specify in your will or your spouse?

[leo-rcc]

what's the big deal if they keep your name in their records? does it affect your life somehow? just sayin?

The list counts as a membership, and the church gets subsidized based on the size of their congregation. This is tax money, so I want to minimize the funding as much as I can.

[kiki5711]

what's the big deal if they keep your name in their records? does it affect your life somehow? just sayin?

The list counts as a membership, and the church gets subsidized based on the size of their congregation. This is tax money, so I want to minimize the funding as much as I can.

ok, I understand. I didn't know it was like that.

[Animavore]

what's the big deal if they keep your name in their records? does it affect your life somehow? just sayin?

It means that people can't go against your wishes and give you a Catholic burial, and it also means that when the Catholic church can't talk about representing all of Ireland any more.

ok, I see. But isn't it in your "will" how you desire to be "disposed"?
Does the church have legal power to burie you the way they want over what you specify in your will or your spouse?

Actually, no. Your family can just bury you as they please. There is no law enforcing it. At least this way the Church will actually refuse to give you a burial.

[Svartalf]

what's the big deal if they keep your name in their records? does it affect your life somehow? just sayin?

The list counts as a membership, and the church gets subsidized based on the size of their congregation. This is tax money, so I want to minimize the funding as much as I can.

Funny-... The church I was baptized in is in a place where I never actually resided (it took place at my maternal grandparents' parish church, so we'd have a bigger celebration with the family, plus I don't think my parents actually went to church in our Canadian home).

I seriously don't think the church is subsidized depending on the baptism (or first communion/confirmation) records ... actually, you have to have interaction as an adult with your parish priest to be counted as a parishioner and the parish subsidized so you can go to mass reasonably close to home.

[leo-rcc]

I seriously don't think the church is subsidized depending on the baptism (or first communion/confirmation) records ... actually, you have to have interaction as an adult with your parish priest to be counted as a parishioner and the parish subsidized so you can go to mass reasonably close to home.

It'a A National subsidy, not locally. The records are combined and kept with SILA (Stichting Interkerkelijke Ledenadministratie).

[Svartalf]

Doesn't make sense... an obscure church in rural France (or France as the national primate where it is located) would be subsidized for a Canadian kid who got baptized in the Old country for the sake of getting the family together?

Seriously, I got communion in Canada, and it's only the hazards of life that drove me to go to my ancestral homeland and spend most of my adult life in France...

Managing funding between countries, or parishes like that is incredibly ludicrous and inefficient... you'd expect a 1000+ year old institution to do better