Atheist Ireland Forum

i thought you had to contact the bishop and the church, but that perhaps the bishop would contact the church for you.

you'll probably have to sue snail mail rather then email.

I had no problem defecting. I sent an email to the Dublin diocese, about a week later I received a letter telling me they were organising for the baptism register to be amended. There was a long paragraph telling me of the consequences of leaving the catholic church which boiled down to the fact that I wouldn`t be able to get married by them but being already divorced this was rather irrelevant.
A couple of weeks later the amended batisimal certificate arrived in the post. the whole thing took less than a month and consisted of me sending just the one email, maybe it was the way I worded it
The only thing about it was the amended cert had all the details correct including when and who I`d been married to but under `confirmation` it said `no record`.

alright was it simply by email that you did iT, and then your letter to the bishopp?? Would you still have acess to the email address??? and do you have to explain the reasons for leaving, as surly i myself owe them no explanation....

I sent one email to communications@dublindiocese.ie. I worded it in such a way as to be polite but very clear that my mind was made up as to wanting out. I also gave my full name, D.O.B, parents names, church where I was baptised and a rough time of when it happened. That was all I did. When I received the letter from them I did not reply as they said it was being dealt with so while I didn`t think it could be that easy I thought I would give them a bit of time and then the ammended cert arrived.

BTW did anyone see this issue being dealt with on `Fair City` last night. I just caught a bit of it when my daughter had it on.

http://www.rte.ie/tv/faircity/series/se ... 29-32.html



lol

bizarre, why would somebody baptise him?

thanks for the information it was very helpful

interesting query a person has here about removing your baptismal cert from the church...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthre ... 2055575546

has anybody seen their baptismal cert in a church?

http://www.freewebs.com/dublinstreams/D ... ver003.jpg

you see in this he refers to a baptismal register, so is there a register with just a list of names and then filing cabinet with copy of baptismal cert?

When I did it, I got my baptismal cert returned via post with a defection notice added to it and a letter stating that I had been deleted from their records.

ah right well i thought they'd be reluctant to remove records, i still wonder what 'delete from their records' means.

Well I also have decided to get my name off the church's lists. Here is the letter I am going to send to the Bishop of Ferns and I will be copying it to the priest of the church where I was baptised. Any suggestions / amendments welcome!

"I wish to declare my formal defection from the Roman Catholic Church.

I hereby reject the teachings, dogma and authority of the Roman Catholic Church and any benefits, so-called sacraments, graces and blessings supposedly bestowed upon me, either in the past or the future. Furthermore, please note that I make these statements personally, consciously and freely.

As a principled and rational person, it pains me that I am being counted as an adherent of an irrational superstition which has done and is doing irreparable harm to humanity and with which I profoundly disagree. The recent publication of the Ryan report has given me the impetus to make my defection from your organisation official.

I note that I was baptised when I was not in a position to consent to being made a member of your organisation. In addition, I was forced to take part in the other initiation ceremonies of communion and confirmation against my will.

Please record that I am no longer a Roman Catholic. I respectfully request confirmation that this has been noted in the baptismal registry with explicit mention of the occurrence of a defection.

I am supplying you with some of my personal information to aid you in officially recording my defection.

Birthdate: xxx
Date of Baptism: Assumed to be at a date between xxx
Name of Parents: xxx
Church of Baptism: xxx

Sincerely,
xxx"

My father read my letter and is freaking out about it! Bigotry starts at home?
How have others been treated by there families when telling them about it? more so in rural areas?

I grew up in a very rural area, the sort of place where the only time everyone met was Saturday night / Sunday morning Mass.

I was always atheist (as far back as I can remember) and became vocal about it as a teenager. This led to a lot of arguments with both parents - from my mother it was accusations of being a pagan and a disgrace, from my father it was emotional blackmail of "you're making me very sad". Perhaps because they saw me as still a child they felt that I should believe what they believed.

I'm assuming you still live at home and are dependant on them? All I can tell you is that my parents refused to accept my lack of belief until I moved away to go to college. Even then because I was financially dependant on them, I had to do the Mass at Easter and Christmas thing.

I have to say I lost a lot of respect for them when I realised that they did not see me as an autonomous person with my own beliefs and way of thinking. This is of course a few years ago, and it was a case of rather old-fashioned people, so hopefully things will go better for you. Fingers and toes crossed for you anyway!

well I'm 21 yr's old i have been to college and am now working at home in the family business, still living at home. working with my parents. (not nice)

My father thinks it will effect business when people find out and that i will be discriminated against. my view is that is there problem not mine.
but he want me to "tear up" the letter.

I didn't get very much grief from my parents, but then I was no longer a "minor" by the time my long journey to disbelief was complete. I think that makes a difference. Parents feel more obliged to influence your actions and more responsible for your choices when you are still at home with them.

I do still have slightly surreal conversations with my very religious mother who regularly advises me to pray about my atheism.

As regards the response from society - well, things are changing. The Church's reputation is in tatters and I doubt that too many people will feel judgemental about someone choosing to leave it. A lot of people are also not particularly bothered in any case, as is evidenced by the empty pews in so many churches around the country. You are right, it is more of an issue in a small rural community than in the city. Have patience. Once you are independant this will be less of a problem. In the mean time, my only advice is try to keep it polite, and try to keep your dignity. It's much harder to angrily dismiss someone who is behaving reasonably.

how will they find out?