UN-Baptized?

[Abeyta85]

Hello,

I had a discussion with a former Catholic, and they told me they withdrew there Church membership(?) and baptism by sending a letter to the church, and received a letter back saying it was approved.

So can you be… Un- Baptized?

 

[Corki]

You can’t be unbaptized. You can formally defect. If you do that, the Bishop sends a letter that you can have addended to your baptismal record. It doesn’t mean you are no longer Catholic, it is simply a recognition of the fact that you have disassociated yourself from being called Catholic. It used to be that if you formally defected you were no longer bound to the canonical rules, especially regarding marriage. That “loophole” has now been closed but I think you can still have your defection formally recognized. I don’t know why someone would want to do that.

 

[Abeyta85]

Ah okay, that makes more sense. I agree don’t see why anyone would want to do such a thing… but Just curious on the aspects of this.

 

[Abeyta85]

Ah okay, that makes more sense. I agree don’t see why anyone would want to do such a thing… but Just curious on the aspects of this.

 

[kenofken]

Ah okay, that makes more sense. I agree don’t see why anyone would want to do such a thing… but Just curious on the aspects of this.

I did such a thing myself. The “why” is more than I have time to get into this minute, but what was said earlier about the process is quite correct. You send a letter to the diocese and within a couple weeks they send you a letter acknowledging the defection and they’re supposed to make a notation in the baptismal record to that effect. It does not “un-baptize” you as the Church doesn’t believe they have the power to do that. It does disqualify you from the sacrements and it used to exempt you from the marriage forms (until very recently). In Canon law I suppose it has no overt effect (except I suppose to excommunicate you via apostasy etc), but as far as I know, they are still being processed.