Is this the official way to defect from the Catholic Church?

[Loved_Disciple]

Hi-

I have a cousin that is soon to marry in the midst of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. (I just received the invitation.) She and her fiancé both used to be Catholic and have —apparently not long ago— chosen to join that religious group instead.

I’d like to know or confirm that the following conditions in fact need to take place in order for theirs to be considered an official abandonment of the Catholic Church. This so I can know if their wedding would actually be valid or not, and so decide whether to attend or not. Here they are:

For the abandonment of the Catholic Church to be validly configured as a true actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia so that the exceptions foreseen in the previously mentioned canons would apply, it is necessary that there concretely be:

a) the internal decision to leave the Catholic Church;
b) the realization and external manifestation of that decision; and
c) the reception of that decision by the competent ecclesiastical authority.

Source: vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/intrptxt/documents/rc_pc_intrptxt_doc_20060313_actus-formalis_en.html

As far as I’m concerned the third step hasn’t occurred because they likely haven’t contacted any ecclesiastical authorities, so I wonder if this would make them still bound to our Canon Law.

Your help would be very much appreciated. I’ve researched quite a bit and still see grey areas.

Thank you,

Juan Carlos

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Formal defection was mentioned in canons 1086, § 1, 1117 and 1124 of the Code of Canon Law and the link you provide defines formal defection.

However, in 2010 the term “formal defection” was stricken from those canons. You can see the decree here.

Experience, however, has shown that [formal defection] gave rise to numerous pastoral problems. First, in individual cases the definition and practical configuration of such a formal act of separation from the Church has proved difficult to establish, from both a theological and a canonical standpoint. In addition, many difficulties have surfaced both in pastoral activity and the practice of tribunals. Indeed, the new law appeared, at least indirectly, to facilitate and even in some way to encourage apostasy in places where the Catholic faithful are not numerous or where unjust marriage laws discriminate between citizens on the basis of religion. The new law also made difficult the return of baptized persons who greatly desired to contract a new canonical marriage following the failure of a preceding marriage. Finally, among other things, many of these marriages in effect became, as far as the Church is concerned, “clandestine” marriages.

…Therefore I decree that in the same Code the following words are to be eliminated: “and has not left it by a formal act” (can. 1117); “and has not left it by means of a formal act” (can. 1086 § 1); “and has not left it by a formal act” (can. 1124).

There is no longer any way to formally defect from the Catholic Church and the Code of Canon Law no longer mentions it anywhere.