An Ossary Defection

My name is John.  For some of my childhood I was a Roman Catholic but from the age of 12, I have had no religious beliefs whatsoever. By age 13, I was a strong atheist and that is now over 22 years ago.

 

I recently decided to officialy leave the Roman Catholic Church so I decided to write a letter to my local Diocese of Ossary. In the correspondence, I stated that I wanted to be allowed leave the Church, since I have been an atheist for most of my life. About three hours after delivering the letter into their office, I got a phone call from the bishop. He wanted to meet me for a chat about why I wished to leave the Church. My meeting was then arranged for the next day .

I went into his office to meet the bishop and we had a very short discussion. He was helpful and told me I would have a letter soon, describing the formal response of the Church. Two weeks later I got the letter but I was disappointed by the content. The letter stated the following …

“Further to our meeting which took place at the diocese office in relation to your decision that you no longer wish to be considered a member of the Catholic Church, I am aware that this is very much a personal decision, and that I respect.

It is not possible to remove your name from the baptism or confirmation register, nor is it possible to cancel the fact that you received these sacraments.

The Church registers are documents which cannot be altered. However I have made a note of your request and have documented same here at the diocesan office.

With prayerful good wishes, etc.”

I was totaly amazed at this response. At the end of the day, it is my right to leave the Catholic Church and it should be only proper to have my documents of baptism and confirmation updated. I should be able to leave the Catholic Church if I wish. People should have their membership removed if they wish, as it’s everyones personal decision and their personal right to do so.

 

“St. Mary’s- Kilkenny” by J.D. Gallman is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

2 Comments

  1. Avatar
    Elaine March 09, 2018

    I turned from the church at 12 years old when I first started listening and understanding in church. I quickly realised I agreed with very little of what was said. So I stopped going and supporting what I realised was sexist tripe. At some point over the next few years without giving it much thought I realised I did not buy into this God heaven and hell stuff.
    I have been resolute since then, over 20 years.

    Reply
    • Avatar
      John phelan May 27, 2018

      Same here Elaine totally agree with you

      Reply

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